"Unicorn" - An Interview with the directors of 'Kelce'
Ahead of the release of "Kelce", I sat down with filmmakers Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce to discuss the filmmaking process, Philadelphia's role in the movie, and of course Kelce himself.
Compared to the average person, a professional sportsman’s career is fleeting. In the NFL, that sentiment is multiplied. The average NFL player is out of the league less than four years after they enter it. Even if you round that 3.3 years up to a whole, and count every regular season game, and assume you are completely injury-free throughout, that’s a 51-game career, tops.
It’s safe to say then, that when a player manages to play 13 years in one of the most physically demanding positions of arguably the most physically demanding sport on the planet, it’s special. While he himself may argue against that, that is what Philadelphia Eagles centre Jason Kelce is.
A five-time first-team All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowler, Kelce’s individual accolades tell the story of a legendary career. A Super Bowl ring he occasionally loses shows he has reached the pinnacle of the sport. Why then does Jason Kelce continue? What does it mean for him to retire? What happens when he has a chance at one last shot? These are all questions that the man himself asks in “Kelce”, a new documentary about the Philadelphia Icon.
“Kelce” follows Jason and his family across the 2022 NFL season and beyond, exploring the life journey of a man who has become the symbol of an entire city. The documentary looks at his relationship with his family, his adopted home, and the people who, in turn, took him in as one of their own. Amid the backdrop of a Super Bowl run that ended in a face-off against his own younger brother in what was dubbed the “Kelce Bowl”, “Kelce” takes us inside the life of an athlete who stares the end of his career in the face, and pushes on regardless.
In this very special edition of Cynical Foul, I speak to Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce, the duo behind “Kelce”, which is out now on Prime Video. In this interview, we discuss the making of the film, the Kelce family, retirement, football, and of course, Philadelphia.
So, first off, why Jason Kelce, and by extension why Philadelphia?
Don Argott: Well, we're based in Philadelphia, we're Philadelphia filmmakers. Our company, 9.14 Pictures, is in its 20th year, we’ve been doing this a long time and we haven’t done many Philadelphia-focused films.
So, it was fitting in so many ways that we got this opportunity to tell a true Philadelphia Story, not just as Philadelphia fans, but as Philadelphia Eagles fans. Then to have Jason Kelce, one of the most beloved Eagles on the team, be the subject? It was a dream come true.
Jason [Kelce] and Connor Barwin [Philadelphia Eagles Director of Player Development] approached us because they were looking to make a documentary about Jason retiring from football. What does it mean to retire from this game that has been your identity your whole life?
We had started the year before the season that we followed, and at the end of that season, Jason decided to not retire, to play another year, so we collectively decided to stick with it. That next season ended up being the season we followed them, and that story was really a gift in the documentary.
Across 9.14’s filmography, most of the documentaries are music documentaries. Were there any challenges you ran into when filming sports compared to other genres?
Sheena M. Joyce: Well our second film, “Two Days in April”, followed four college football players as they went through the NFL draft, so we did have a bit of football experience. But, I think whether it’s a story set in the sports world or the music world, we just want to tell good character stories about people that go on a journey and have some stakes. That’s part of every doc that we do appealing to us as filmmakers.
DA: At the end of the day, you have to be able to connect with the people that you're watching on screen. If you're not interested in who they are, then it doesn't matter what they do, whether that's music or sports or anything. I think we always try to get down to the human element, in everything that we do.
SJ: It's like a joke in the editing room: “Would our moms watch this?” And hopefully, the answer is yes.
A lot of the story of the documentary showcases what Jason Kelce means to the city of Philadelphia and, alternatively, what Philadelphia means to him. How important was that to get across to the viewer?
DA: It’s incredibly important. To tell a story about an athlete, and only focus on their time on the field, would only show a sliver of who they really are. When you start to broaden that scope and see that he’s a brother, a son, a husband, a father, a hero, you see what makes him who he is.
I think the reason why so many people love him is that he knows that, he knows he has a responsibility for the people that live and die by the Eagles every Sunday. That’s not a small thing to them. Jason is very much a man of the people and in a city like this, that’s everything.
SJ: I can say this having grown up here, we [Philadelphians] appreciate the hard workers, we appreciate the underdogs. I think Philadelphians are always walking this line of being so proud of our city but also having a chip on our shoulder because we’re stuck between New York and [Washington] DC and they get all the attention. We always have something to prove, and I feel like that's something that Jason feels in himself is that he always has something to prove.
You see in the film that he didn’t get recruited to a top college, he was a walk-on, and he didn’t go in the first round of the NFL draft. So he’s a guy that has had to constantly prove himself and we appreciate that because we feel like we have that same burden.
A lot of the emotional core of the film is provided by Kelce’s family; his wife, daughters, parents, and of course his brother. It shines through on the film, but what were they all like when the cameras were not rolling?
SJ: They are incredibly authentic people. It was lucky that Don and I had been filming for about a year before the Eagles made their Super Bowl run, because we had earned the family’s trust and had access at that point. So, when the national and international spotlight came on them during the “Kelce Bowl”, we were able to get those intimate moments behind the scenes.
DA: There really is no difference between what you see and who they are. When we’re filming Kylie [Kelce] trying to take care of the girls, whether the cameras are on or off that’s what is happening. Those are the best films because nothing’s fabricated in them, nothing is contrived or forced.
The film of course covers the “Kelce Bowl”, but does not end on that note, instead continuing on and capturing the gravity of the aftermath. Why did you choose to continue after that loss?
SJ: Let's not forget that Kylie was 38 weeks pregnant at the Super Bowl, and they had a beautiful baby girl 10 days after that. So, life doesn't begin and end with football, and it doesn't begin and end with the Super Bowl. I think it's important, and it was at least to me to to show what happens to the family after a loss like that, and adversity like that. You still have this beautiful ending with Jason's decision, but more importantly, with the birth of their third daughter.
DA: It’s always hard, as you can imagine. We have no control over anything because we’re just following life as it happens. I look back at so many moments that did go right for us at every level, they could have lost in the first round of the playoffs, they could have lost to the 49ers, do we still have a film if that happens? We could still be filming now if any of those things transpired.
But winning isn't everything. And I think you could argue that he did win. He's got a beautiful family already, a new beautiful daughter 10 days later., and he decides that he's just not ready to walk away. As a storyteller, you're wrapped up in this moment of these archetypical endings of like: “Oh my god he's gonna win the Super Bowl then he's gonna retire, the retirement speech that he gives is gonna book-end the film because we got a Super Bowl speech at the beginning of the film, and then we get his retirement speech at the end of the film.” These are all the things you're always thinking about as a filmmaker. Well, life doesn't always work out.
Is that why you chose to follow a player at the end of their career rather than one that’s just at the beginning?
DA: Jason as a subject of a documentary is a bit of a unicorn. It’s hard to find someone who is as intelligent, as authentic, as magnetic as he is. The reason he is like that is because he has experience playing in the league as long as he has. Let's be honest, we don't know what the beginning or end of a career looks like. We could start filming anybody that starts in the league, and their career could be over before the season ends.
SJ: Yeah. I think this is Jason’s 13th season. That’s a long time, especially to play Centre. To see the toll that the game takes on them physically, and what those repercussions mean for [their families], it really does change the trajectory of their lives. I hope people get a new appreciation for the players and what they go through.
Throughout the doc, you inter-spliced Kelce’s story with a lot of NFL gameday footage and a lot of footage of the people of Philadelphia. In telling the story how did you decide what makes it in and what doesn’t?
SJ: Well, we just start cutting scenes. We usually notecard them and move them around on a bulletin board. You just find these moments and create scenes around them, and then try and weave the scenes together. You always have your darlings that you don't want to kill, but you have to at the end. Hopefully, the film is better for it.
One thing that stood out to me throughout this interview is that you referred to Kelce as a “unicorn.” Philadelphia itself has a reputation as a unique city and the film shows the two fit together like a glove. Do you think you could have made a film like this about any other player or any other city?
DA: I would never say no.
SJ: I will say no! As the one in the relationship who was born here, I will say no. There’s nothing like Jason Kelce and Philadelphia and we were incredibly fortunate to be able to bring both to the screen. I think it’s our love letter to Philadelphia. But that’s just me, I disagree.
DA: I think a better question would be: “Could an outside film team tell this story?” I think that would be harder to say yes to because I think you have to understand this place. You have to understand all the things that make it cool and weird, and what it is to be able to show it in a way that is authentic, that is not giving a false version of it. That's not easy to do. And maybe we didn't get it right, but I like to think that we did.
It is just one of those situations where in your career, you have opportunities to make certain movies, and within the span of the time that you're making that film, all these things kind of come into place. That happened on multiple levels. Travis could have gotten hurt, the Bengals could have won [against the Chiefs]. They could have played the Bengals in the Super Bowl, which still would have been a great story, but nowhere near as great as two brothers playing in the Super Bowl. To have the media spotlight and then for us to have been there that whole time with the family, it was lightning in a bottle. It was planets aligning, it was everybody coming together to make this thing special for all the right reasons because they saw how special it was.