Here’s Why Shaquille O’Neal Advised Jason Kelce ‘Don’t Be an Idiot Like Me’ After Retirement

Despite being a fantastic athlete, Shaquille O'Neal struggled with his personal life. When they recently got together, O'Neal gave Jason Kelce some advice, saying, “Don’t be an idiot like me.”

At his yearly Super Bowl party, Shaq's Fun House, at XS nightclub in the Wynn Las Vegas hotel on February 9 night, the 51-year-old NBA icon told Page Six he had some advice for the Philadelphia Eagles center, provided he decides to go through with his retirement plans. “I just told him to enjoy his family,” O’Neal told the outlet. “Don’t be an idiot like me. I made a lot of dumb mistakes and lost my family, so I just told him to enjoy his beautiful wife [Kylie Kelce], enjoy his kids, and just, you know, be happy.”

Being a family man, Shaquille said, he truly clicked with Jason. “Jason is a beautiful guy. I can tell that we’re the same people,” the Taylor Swift superfan said. “He has great admiration for his mother and father — as do I. He’s a family guy. He’s happy for his brother [Travis Kelce]. They competed. They fought. It’s the same thing me and Kobe [Bryant] did — that’s how you raise champions.”

Because O'Neal relates personally to Jason, he decided to share life tricks with the footballer. O'Neal was referring to his tumultuous marriage with his ex, Shaunie O’Neal. Shaunie and Shaq first met in 1997 and got married after dating for five years on December 26, 2002, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Together, they had four children: Shaqir and Me'arah O'Neal during their marriage, and Shareef Rashaun O'Neal and Amirah Sanaa O'Neal before getting married. 

Shaquille, who feels a lot of regret for how his family life has turned out, previously openly admitted responsibility for their breakup, saying at the time that he hadn't been “protecting those vows” of their marriage. “Sometimes when you live that double life, you get caught up,” he told The Pivot Podcast back in 2022. “I’m not going to say it was her. It was all me...”

In the podcast, the former basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers waxed poetic about his family and how their encouragement meant the world to him. However, he felt "lost" after he and Shaunie split up in 2009. “I was just being greedy,” he said. “My wife was finer than a mug and kept giving me babies, still finer than a mug. I had it all, and I don’t make excuses — I know I messed up.”

“As I get older and dwell on situations, I can honestly say it was all me, because I was big time,” O'Neal revealed of Shaunie, who has since moved on, getting engaged to pastor Keion Henderson in November 2021. “She’s happy now,” Shaq revealed. “She’s about to marry a fine, young gentleman, and I’m happy for her, and we have a great relationship.”