Good that is not how anyone expected Jason Kelce’s return to the Linc to end.

But before the Eagles suffered an epic defeat to the Atlanta Falcons, Monday night footballESPN’s newest star got exactly what he wanted when he decided to supplement his busy post-retirement life with a job as an NFL analyst.

“Being involved on game day is one of the only ways a player can stay connected to the game,” Kelce said after leaving the booth Monday night, wiping sweat from his brow. “You get to go to the venue, you’re not just in a studio somewhere.”

» READ MORE: ‘Monday Night Football’ Had a Real Philly Vibe — Thanks, Jason Kelce — and More Eagles-Falcons Highlights

ESPN made Kelce the centerpiece of its Monday night broadcast. Kelce spent much of the night prancing around in a green velour sweatsuit he called a “South Philly tuxedo,” dancing and singing with Birds fans, visiting with everyone from Eagles owner Jeff Lurie to Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, and even joining in the Monday night football to cover part of the match, along with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.

With two minutes left in the game, it seemed like ESPN had made a smart bet by making their broadcast heavy on the Eagles. But a Saquon Barkley drop, a Kirk Cousins ​​touchdown and a Jalen Hurts interception later, it was Falcons fans who suddenly felt vindicated, especially after Kelce predicted the Eagles by 50 points. He even joked during the broadcast that fans were “getting tired of seeing my face.”

But Kelce’s transformation from locker room leader to energetic game show host who’s not afraid to have a little fun is exactly what ESPN wanted.

“He’s different. He’s big. He’s authentic,” Seth Markman, ESPN’s vice president of production, told The Inquirer on Monday outside Xfinity Live!, as he spoke over Eagles chants from the crowd.

Different is a word for it.

“We want Jason Kelce to be Jason Kelce,” Markman said.

Kelce may be the only NFL sports commentator besides Pat McAfee who could get away with using a slang term for women’s breasts during a live broadcast, a slip of the tongue that ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt and his crew laughed at him for on Monday night (colleague Monday evening countdown (analyst Ryan Clark repeated it so fast that ESPN couldn’t even play it).

Markman said irreverence is part of the Kelce experience, something ESPN was aware of when it brought in the former Eagles star in a last-minute deal.

One reason Kelce decided to go with ESPN was their pitch to have him play live in front of fans and players. Even before the Eagles took the field on Monday, that concept paid off big time, with fans screaming Monday evening countdown feels more like an episode of College GameDay.

Markman said it’s nearly impossible to recreate the experience of an NFL broadcast on a college campus, but Kelce and South Philly came close.

Lurie stopped by to greet his former star. Donna Kelce, Jason’s mother, received a loud cheer from the Eagles crowd. So did retired Eagles star Fletcher Cox and Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles, both of whom wore dog masks in a surprise appearance alongside Kelce. At one point, Kelce even challenged tattooed superfan Rob Dunphy to a chest bump, which ended with Dunphy injuring his knee.

“Yes, I got hurt doing a chest bump,” Dunphy wrote on social media late Monday night. “But I got higher than Kelce.”

While he certainly gave fans the Kelce experience, he wasn’t there the entire time. Like any other TV professional, Kelce would scroll through his phone during commercial breaks, getting feedback from producers and his fellow analysts, Clark and Marcus Spears. The show isn’t structured and much is left up to the hosts, so those quiet moments gave Kelce and company a chance to relax and reset during their two-hour broadcast.

During an ESPN media event last month, Van Pelt told The Inquirer that the plan was to emphasize Kelce’s ties to the Eagles during Monday’s broadcast. “There’s no reason to pretend he doesn’t have a passion for this team,” Van Pelt said. They certainly stuck to that plan, even if it meant upsetting Falcons fans watching at home.

“Nobody came here to see us,” Van Pelt joked to the Eagles fans.

In the cabin with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman

In the third quarter, Kelce traded his South Philly tux for a green Eagles jacket to hop into the ESPN booth and join Buck and Aikman for coverage of the game.

After a slow start, Kelce appeared to warm up to live coverage of the action, providing insight on his former teammate and replacement center Cam Jurgens (“That’s real farm power. He grew up on a cattle farm, beef jerky is his nickname.”) Kelce also got a chance to call an Eagles touchdown on a “tush push,” a play he helped create and master.

“I think I got better as it went on. There were a couple (moments) where I was trying to figure out where I fit in and what I needed to say,” Kelce said after leaving the booth. “I think everybody saw Tom Brady’s first-week performance and had a lot of criticism for it … I saw firsthand why that’s so tough, that’s for sure.”

Markman said Kelce showed interest in covering games, one of the things he did during the NFL’s broadcast boot camp for players a few years ago in Los Angeles. He certainly seemed to enjoy his time with Buck and Aikman, staying in the booth for most of the third quarter and into the fourth.

“It’s the most challenging” part of an NFL broadcast, Kelce said, and that’s part of what makes it so appealing. “In the heat of the moment, you have to provide a perspective or something that the viewer can take and enjoy. To me, it’s hard when you’re doing that live, in the moment, in real time.”

Perhaps the best decision Kelce made all night, aside from not crowd surfing outside of Xfinity Live!, was to leave the booth with the Eagles still up by three. While it would have been interesting to hear Kelce explain what went wrong in those final two minutes, Buck seemed to sum it up as succinctly as he could for Eagles fans.

“I’ve been covering NFL games for 31 years and I don’t think I’ve ever been as shocked as I was tonight by the way this game ended,” Buck said.