Shaquille O'Neal To Jason Kelce On Retirement Advice: 'Enjoy Your Family'

Jason Kelce still isn’t 100 percent sure on when he’ll retire. But once he does, Shaquille O’Neal gave him some incredible advice to follow.

The Philadelphia Eagles center spoke with the NBA legend on an episode of "The Big Podcast with Shaq" released earlier this week (the link to the full episode is here). One of the topics of conversation was Kelce’s potential retirement decision, and how to handle the challenges that come with it.

Shaq didn’t advise Kelce to take tons of vacations or throw himself into a different line of work to fill the void created by a lack of football.

O’Neal told Kelce that, above all, he should spend as much time with his family as possible.

"If you are going to retire, accept it, enjoy your family brother," O’Neal said with an air of seriousness. "I made a lot of dumb mistakes to where I lost my family, and I didn’t have anybody. That’s not the case for you. Enjoy your beautiful wife, enjoy your beautiful kids, and never dwell on what we had."

Shaq isn’t wrong, Kelce has a fantastic family that has supported him through the highs and lows of his career.

O’Neal knows what he’s talking about too. When giving this advice, the Hall-of-Fame center was seemingly referring to his divorce from his ex-wife Shaunie, something he still regrets. In 2022, he admitted that the two split due to what Shaq characterized as his inability to protect their marriage vows.

"Sometimes when you live that double life, you get caught up. I’m not going to say it was her. It was all me," he said.

The couple had four children together as well. But Shaq admitted to Kelce that because of his decision, he still feels the effects of it to this day, to the point where he lives alone.

"I’m in a 100,000 square foot house by myself," O’Neal said.

It’s unclear when he’ll actually apply this advice. But he did respect the gravity of this guidance and seemed to take it to heart. Kelce learned from a legend about an aspect of life that is far more important than a football career.