Kyle Long is headed to Minneapolis next week, an interested Super Bowl spectator yet again. For the second consecutive year, Long’s oldest brother, Chris, will play in football’s grandest game. Chris helped the Patriots win last year’s Super Bowl and will now push his Eagles to try and upset his old team in Super Bowl LII.

Kyle, meanwhile, will watch with an odd combination of enthusiasm, pride and a bit of jealousy too.

“I’d say 99.9 percent of the time, even 100 percent of the time I’m completely wholeheartedly so happy for my brother,” Long said this week during a radio interview on “Carmen and Jurko” on WMVP-AM 1000. “And I’m so lucky and grateful to be able to be part of that experience. … That’s the brother in me. The NFL brother in me? I mean when I’m standing on the field and there’s green-and-white confetti — and last year it was red, white and blue — a part of me is anxious to see that navy and orange falling from the rafters.”

Long was in Philadelphia for last weekend’s NFC championship game and loved the big-game atmosphere.

“It was nuts,” he said. “They Crisco’d the freaking light poles (in the city), if that gives you any indication of (the craziness). ... They were ready for it. And the stadium atmosphere was incredible.”

Long, who has never been to the playoffs in his five NFL seasons, wants nothing more than to bring that big-game energy back to Chicago. Still, the veteran lineman is in the middle of yet another challenging offseason. In mid-December, he posted social media selfies from the hospital as he underwent surgery on his neck.

Long told “Carmen and Jurko” that he was “feeling great” these days but indeed had more surgeries ahead.

“I’ve got some minor standard-operating-procedure offseason stuff,” he said. “But nothing major.”

Is the torn labrum in his left shoulder something that will be worked on?

“Yeah,” Long said. “There’s going to be some work done with that for sure.”

Long has had a rough ride the last two seasons. He tore the labrum in his shoulder during the 2016 preseason and was hindered by the injury throughout the regular season. Then, in November of that year, he severely tore up his right ankle in a loss in Tampa. That ultimately required surgery that put Long on the shelf deep into the following summer.

This past year, Long was significantly limited throughout training camp and missed the first two games of the regular season with the ankle issues. He missed a game and a half after mangling his finger in a loss to the Saints. He went on injured reserve in Week 14 when, as former coach John Fox said, his shoulder problem became “re-aggravated.”

Long’s Christmastime revelation that he needed neck surgery was just another example of the physical tribulations he’s been through.

“You know what, I was so blessed early on to come out clean from so many hundreds and thousands of piles that I was in that it was going to catch up to me eventually,” Long said. “Every player goes through it. I just happened to have it all clumped together.”

During last weekend’s visit to Philadelphia, Long had the chance to connect with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, whose brother Jason is a center for the Eagles. Naturally, the conversation turned to Long’s new head coach Matt Nagy, who was Travis Kelce’s offensive coordinator the last two seasons.

Kelce’s take on Nagy?

“He really enjoyed him,” Long said. “His face kind of lit up when I asked about him. It took me reminding him to realize that (Nagy) was with me now. He was actually really excited for me and for Mitch (Trubisky) specifically. He said he’s going to be really good for him.”

As for participating in another one of his older brother’s big accomplishments, Long wants to have his own party with the Bears soon.

“I know it will happen,” he said. “And I’m just excited to see who I get to invite when it does happen. And I know it will be soon.”

dwiederer@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @danwiederer

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