Jason Kelce had already played his final game as a NFL player, but he still needed his ankles wrapped up one last time. He wasn’t concerned about spraining any joints. The ritual, with Philadelphia Eagles trainer Joe O’Pella, was what mattered.
O’Pella battled cancer throughout Kelce’s final season. Treatments forced him to miss practice and games, preventing him from doing what he’d done the previous 12 years: taking care of, and taping, Kelce.
‘You all know about the on-field accomplishments, and many of the off-field ones, too, but what this man has meant to me and now my family over the past decade plus is nearly indescribable,’ O’Pella wrote in a post on Instagram.
Kelce offered O’Pella his beach house in New Jersey during his recovery should he and his wife want to escape. He also wanted to pay for meal services for the couple.
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‘He called me randomly when I had been home, too sick to come in (because) of chemo, just to check on me and chat about random things,’ O’Pella wrote. ‘That’s who he is as a person.’
When O’Pella, who was promoted to associate athletic trainer in 2018, expressed regret that he wouldn’t be the last person to tape Kelce, the six-time All-Pro had a solution.
‘I hope these stories can add to an already unbelievable legacy,’ O’Pella wrote.
