O’Neal chatted with Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce during a new episode of ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq’

<p>The Big Podcast with Shaq / Youtube</p> Shaquille O

The Big Podcast with Shaq / YoutubeShaquille O’Neal

Shaquille O’Neal is giving some advice to Jason Kelce — from one center to another.

The NBA legend, 51, chatted with the Philadelphia Eagles center, 36, during a new episode of his The Big Podcast with Shaq this week. He offered the fellow big guy some retirement advice, sharing that he made “dumbass mistakes” involving his family in the past.

“My advice to you is that if you are going to retire, accept it,” O’Neal told Kelce. “Enjoy your family, brother. I made a lot of dumbass mistakes to where I lost my family and I didn’t have anybody.”

“That’s not the case for you,” he added. “So enjoy your beautiful wife, enjoy your beautiful kids and never dwell on what we had.”

O’Neal continued by sharing that “what we had is what we got.”

“You got the ring. People know who you are. Enjoy,” he said. “Because again, I was an idiot. And I’ve talked about it a long time. Lost my whole family. I’m in a 100,000-square-foot house by myself.”

“But again, the way I was raised. F— up, man up, and deal with it.”

O’Neal, who has six children, shares four of them with ex-wife Shaunie O’Neal: sons Shareef and Shaqir and daughters Amirah and Me’arah. He also shares daughter Taahirah with former girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh and stepson Myles, from Shaunie’s previous relationship.

The four-time NBA champion has said in recent years that he’s now on good terms with his former partners. In Shaq Uncut: My Story, his 2011 book, the basketball great admitted to not being the “best partner” to Shaunie, whom he split with in 2009 after seven years of marriage.

“At one time, my ex-wife Shaunie and I were happy, but I admit it — I was a guy,” O’Neal wrote in his book. “I was a guy with too many options. Choosing to be with some of those women, well, that’s on me. In my mind, I never did it disrespectfully, but obviously I shouldn’t have done it all.”

He added: “You know as well as I do relationships are about maintaining … It wasn’t the big stuff, it was the small stuff, and that’s my fault. I had things to do. I was trying to win, trying to make some money. I admit I wasn’t the best partner. I just didn’t know how. I’m learning now.”

 

<p>Kimberly White/Getty</p> Shaquille O'Neal

Kimberly White/GettyShaquille O’Neal

The new episode of O’Neal’s podcast arrived shortly after Kelce played his last NFL game of the season on Jan. 15, when the Eagles were eliminated in the NFL playoffs by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The NFL and ESPN then both reported at the time that Kelce told his teammates that he was planning to retire.

As previously reported, Kelce opened up about the prospect of retirement while on O’Neal’s podcast, when he revealed that he’s “still figuring it out.”

“I think I’ll have an answer in the next couple weeks,” Kelce explained.

“I think if I still want to play, I’m going to play,” he elaborated. “I think right now we’re not far enough away from the last game. It’s emotional, it’s a long season, the end of the season quite frankly, awful. So I’m just going to take some time, rest, recoup and then figure it out.”

Related: Everything to Know About Shaquille O’Neal’s Family (He’s a Dad of 6)

The 13-year NFL veteran also revealed on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast last week that he found the idea of retirement to be both “exciting” and “daunting,” adding that it’s exciting to “think about possibilities.”

“It is exciting to be able to lose weight, feel good, and not physically fight for my life every day,” he said. “I think it is also daunting. It is anxiety and at the end of the day, it is the unknown.”

During an episode of his New Heights podcast with brother Travis Kelce, the star player also revealed that his decision to play again will be based on “whether I want to do it” and if he can ultimately “endure that again.”