Long before Jason Kelce ripped off his pants to reveal his patriotic Speedo & bikini wax, or turned into “Fat Batman” on the sidelines. Even before he invaded WrestleMania 40 with teammate Lane Johnson in green-and-white luchador masks, I photographed him in 2015 at a commencement ceremony for just six high school graduates.
I didn’t know much about the Eagles center who was still two seasons away from his first first-team All-Pro honor, and well before his Mummer’s Super Bowl parade speech would make him a Philly folk hero and a viral celebrity.
I didn’t even know there would be a speaker, let alone a football player. The event was in a small room upstairs at the William Way Community Center, with kids from a charter school for students in foster care, community homes, or shelters.
It was not a media event; he wasn’t there for the cameras. I was the only other outsider, attending just because I was working on a story on one of the students.
She said Kelce was nice and very genuine. And he gave all the graduates iPads. “That was cool,” she recalled recently, “because none of us could afford one.”
But I was really impressed by what he said to the handful of young people and their families. He stayed around afterward and posed for photos, talked about his life — and theirs.
Since that night, I’ve seen him involved in other efforts supporting foster-care children and students, including “A Philly Special Christmas,” which has provided gifts to thousands of children in foster care.
I thought of Kelce this week when I covered two other Eagles giving back (and once again made it — with some off-the-field non-action — into The Inquirer’s weekly Big Picture look back at the week’s best sports photos).
On Tuesday, quarterback Jalen Hurts donated $600,000 for air conditioning at Philadelphia’s largest high school. Asked why he was turning his attention to city schools, Hurts said he was influenced by his educator parents and the people who made a way for him. “It’s about service and showing up for those around you,” he said.
Covering the pep rally at the school, I was much more in the political-candidate zone than celebrity-athlete mode.
When I arrived at Northeast High School and was escorted with all the other news media to a corner in front of the sweltering auditorium (it really does need the AC!), I didn’t want to just wait around with everyone else until the program started. So I excused myself saying I needed to go back out to get something from my car.
Outside, I talked to teachers working with the student greeters and police officers about the arrival of the football player and school district officials, when as luck would have it, a bunch of big black SUVs arrived.
Just like the night with Kelce, I was the only news media there, so I hung back, not wanting to get booted away. But I also knew I would be getting plenty of photos inside, so I didn’t need to be an obnoxious paparazzo. I positioned myself to focus more on the students when Hurts and the Mayor left their cars.
After following their entourages into a holding area conference room laid out with snacks, I left, but not before making a quick photo — a high-ranking member of the Mayor’s staff sneaking a selfie, just to show the universal appeal of a superstar, world-class athlete.
The pep rally was energetic and visually exciting, but still wearing my covering-political-candidates hat and trying to get something different, I skipped Hurts’ post-event media availability and went to scout opportunities for a photo as he left. As you’d expect, for safety reasons there are multiple ways out from school auditoriums.
While the school safety officers cleared all the students from the hallway I was talking with them over the exit plan and found a good spot — across from some Eagles’ Midnight Green lockers.
But, just like in football — and politics — you win some and you lose some. At the last second I heard an officer’s walkie-talkie squawking “they’re going out the back.”
However, I did get to see them leave outside, and photograph students watching from their classroom — with a window AC unit — as the limos drove away.
From there I went across town to Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls where Eagles linebacker Jalyx Hunt was at another assembly announcing that he was establishing four new scholarships.
He got to know the school when he was drafted by the Eagles and started a fundraiser for underfunded school sports programs. Little Flower’s basketball team was one of the first recipients. That was two years ago, and he has kept up that relationship with what he calls a “whole bunch of little sisters” in the hundreds of students there.
As Eagles beat reporter Olivia Reiner reported, he was heeding his teacher mother’s advice: “You don’t have to originate in a place to become a part of that place.“
The scholarships are each named after women in his life.
Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
» SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column.
