According to Donna Kelce, her father, Donald Roy “Don” Blalock Sr., had plenty of faults. “Grandpa was a narcissist,” she told her sons on “New Heights.” But Blalock played a crucial role in Jason Kelce’s football career by giving him some guidance at a time when he needed it.
Jason didn’t get to see his grandpa often, but during one of his rare visits, Blalock gave Jason a card that had a Calvin Coolidge quote about the power of persistence printed on it. Jason was in high school at the time and uncertain about what he wanted to do with his future, but that quote gave him the confidence to pursue a college football career as a walk-on. Of the realization he reached, Jason told The Washington Post, “A lot of times, the people who end up making it are the people who just stick with it.”
When Jason got his Super Bowl ring in 2018, Blalock was unable to attend the game in person but did get to watch his grandson play. “He hung in there and he saw Jason win the Super Bowl. And he was with it enough to know exactly what happened and everything,” Donna told The Athletic. Blalock died six months later, and Jason helped his family scatter his ashes. “He was not the best grandfather. He wasn’t the best dad,” Jason told The Washington Post. “But he was a great grandfather at the perfect moment.”
