Petitions pour in for Eagles' Jason Kelce amid retirement reports

What they're saying: Jessica Flatt, a lifelong Birds fan, wrote that Kelce was a "symbol of unity" in her petition urging the Eagles to put up a statue of the All-Pro center at the Linc.

• She tells Axios that she met Kelce after the Eagles' Super Bowl win in 2018 while hostessing at the First Watch restaurant in Wynnewood. Kelce's wife, Kylie, snapped a photo of the two because Flatt was too short to take a selfie.
• Her favorite memory is of Kelce decked out in the green Mummers outfit giving a profanity-laced stump speech as his voice gave out atop the steps of the Art Museum.
• "He said what everyone else was thinking," Flatt says. "He's the heart and soul of the Eagles."

Zoom in: Chris Aldrich, a 51-year-old insurance adjuster from Toms River, New Jersey, wants the Eagles to retire Kelce's number — an honor bestowed upon only a handful of franchise greats.

The bottom line: Fans hope Kelce returns to football one day. One radical idea, Aldrich says, is to fire head coach Nick Sirianni and replace him with the retiring Kelce.

• "I would love to see that," he says. "He's not in it to be the spectacle. He's in it to get the job done."