“Overjoyed, Jason Kelce’s mom celebrates as she finally welcomes her first male grandchild, saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m holding my son’s son!’”

Before her son Jason Kelce told his teammates he was retiring from football, Donna Kelce reflected on what made the Philadelphia Eagles center so great.

She focused not on his status as a likely future Hall of Famer, but the heart he brought to the game – and how much his team’s city loves him.

“It’s exciting to see how Philadelphia has embraced him,” Donna Kelce, the mom of brothers Jason and Travis Kelce, said in an interview with TODAY.com before Jason announced his retirement.

“Jason is a special individual, where, you know, somebody telling him he can’t do it is a fire that drives him.””I just am really, really thrilled that both cities really feel very attached to both Jason and Travis,” Donna Kelce says, reflecting on her sons’ NFL careers. “They’re very much larger-than-life human beings that attract really great people all around them. It’s really fun.”