Eagles' Kelce to Ben Simmons: 'Just play better'

Eagles center Jason Kelce had a lot to say regarding the Ben Simmons situation this Thursday, according to Martin Frank of THE DELAWARE NEWS JOURNAL.

Kelce has been on the Eagles for 11-years and has become a fan-favorite within the city. As someone who knows the media and fans well, he offered the 76ers guard some advice.

"I tell guys, you write your own narrative. I don't want to crush any other players, but what's going on with the 76ers, Ben Simmons, stuff like that, all of that is because of a lack of accountability, a lack of owning up to mistakes and a lack of correcting things," Kelce said. "If all that got corrected, if you're fixing free throws, if you're getting better as a player, none of this is happening. So everybody can bitch and complain about how tough this city is to play in. Just play better, man. This city will love you."

Simmons is trying to force a trade out of Philly and is willing to do “whatever it takes” according to Sham Charania of THE ATHLETIC. He was thrown out from practice on Tuesday and suspended for the 76ers opener on Wednesday for "conduct detrimental to the team."

Kelce said that Simmons wasn’t “accountable” when it came to getting better and that the media and fans would “crush” him because of it.

"There's a lot of people that say it's a hard place to play. I think it's pretty f---ing easy, to be honest with you," Kelce said. "You just go out there and play hard. You want to be loved in this city as a baseball player? Run to first base. They're going to f---ing love you. That's what it comes down to. If you come up here and make a bunch of excuses, you come up here and try to lie to them and act like they don't know what they're talking about -- which sometimes they don't -- when you act that way or you aren't accountable, you're making mistakes or you're not getting better, they're going to crush you.

"Everybody's going to get crushed at some point, everybody is going to go through a downturn and be struggling, and at all times this city is going to keep you accountable for doing your job and performing. But if you stick to it and you fight through it and you get better, they'll respect the hell out of you. Even if you're struggling and you're fighting and you're trying, they're still going to respect you. That's what I think most guys miss. I really don't think this is a hard place to play at all. I think a hard place to play is ... I think it would be miserable to play in a place like Jacksonville, where nobody cares."