Travis Kelce has helped the Kansas City Chiefs reach 5 of the previous six Enormous Bowls
BBC Sport journalist
Travis Kelce already has an accurate recommendation how refined a name it’s for an NFL player to retire.
Practically two years in the past he watched his older brother Jason fight via the route of.
Travis used to be sat in the entrance row of his retirement data conference, wiping away tears as a 36-year-old Jason announced he used to be ending his thirteen-year career with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Now Travis is 36 and tell to face a identical pickle as he approaches the conclude of his thirteenth year.
After a success three Enormous Bowls in the previous six years with the Kansas City Chiefs, his contract expires on the conclude of the season.
Having didn’t reach the play-offs for the first time in eleven years, the Chiefs’ kingdom is sooner or later crumbling.
With Kelce also expected to marry his fiancee Taylor Swift subsequent summer season, is now the time for one among the NFL’s most attention-grabbing tight ends to name it a day?
Resolution will ‘advance to you with time’
Jason Kelce’s retirement used to be an emotional affair, attended by his brother Travis and their oldsters
Travis Kelce has even handed retirement sooner than, after Philadelphia averted Kansas City a success a third straight Enormous Bowl final season.
He took time to spy “whether or not I am motivated or it’s the finest decision for me” to advance for the final year of his contract and “make a choice on all of that accountability”.
A month after making his fifth Enormous Bowl appearance in February, Kelce confirmed he would proceed.
But the Chiefs be pleased since looked a shadow of their old selves, being eradicated from play-off contention with three video games of the long-established season final.
Kelce’s future is one among the quiz marks hanging over Kansas City as they prepare to rebuild, and his brother Jason used to be requested at some stage in his media work with ESPN whether or not he had any advice.
“You would possibly perhaps perhaps perhaps need to step away from the sport for a piece of of bit,” stated the 2018 Enormous Bowl winner with the Eagles. “Play these three video games, bag pleasure from them, after which let it sink in. It’ll advance to you with time.”
The first of these video games at Tennessee on Sunday, although, used to be not very palatable. After Patrick Mahomes suffered a season-ending difficulty the week sooner than, his again-up Gardner Minshew also got injured, so the Chiefs ended the sport with third-string quarterback Chris Oladokun.
The Titans won 26-9 for his or her third victory this season and Kelce had valid one reception for six yards as Kansas City slipped to a 6-9 story. Even though they earn their closing two video games, this could perhaps perhaps even be Andy Reid’s worst story in thirteen seasons as their head coach.
Why he opted against ‘farewell tour’
After final season’s total Enormous Bowl defeat by the Eagles, Kelce interestingly texted sports analyst Pat McAfee, exterior announcing, “I will be able to’t stride out fancy that”.
No doubt this isn’t very how Kelce wished it to pause both.
His on-field reference to Mahomes used to be pivotal to the Chiefs setting up an NFL dynasty, and now the quarterback, 30, is perhaps not in the market for what’s going to be Kelce’s closing video games.
On Christmas Day, the Chiefs host a Denver Broncos crew having a observe to stable the AFC’s top seed for the play-offs. Then they visit Las Vegas to face a Raiders crew which can perhaps perhaps perhaps bag the season with the NFL’s worst story.
However, Allegiant Stadium is where Kelce ended a whirlwind 2023 season wherein he started dating pop well-known person Swift. Their relationship catapulted his profile to an entire contemporary diploma and Swifties adopted the singer’s elope against time to bag from Tokyo to Vegas to spy her contemporary lover earn a third Enormous Bowl.
Speaking earlier this year about whether or not he could well perhaps perhaps divulge a retirement decision sooner than the conclude of the season, so as that he can be pleased a ‘farewell tour’, Kelce stated: “That’s not me.”
He added he would judge on his future sooner than the initiate of free company on eleven March, giving the Chiefs time to prepare for the 2026 season.
Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs be pleased a fair appropriate time their 2024 Enormous Bowl earn
Kelce has already been making ready for lifestyles after football.
In 2016 he starred in his be pleased actuality TV dating sequence and he and Jason launched a podcast known as Original Heights in 2022.
On the conclude of that season, they grew to turn into the first brothers to play each other in a Enormous Bowl and appeared on the Saturday Evening Dwell comedy instruct.
Since then, Travis has worked as a sport instruct host, an actor and an executive producer.
In a GQ cloak chronicle this summer season,, exterior Kelce stated his football “could well perhaps perhaps need slipped a piece of of bit because of I did be pleased a piece of of bit more level of curiosity in seeking to tell myself up”.
While Jason is now a TV analyst, it’s perhaps not Travis will prepare that neatly-trodden path from the field to the commentary booth.
If he retires and will get married subsequent year, there shall be a range of alternative opportunities expecting him in movie and tv, and in all probability he and his contemporary spouse will initiate a household.
NFL 2025 season: Week 17
25-29 December 2025
Dwell text commentary on Sunday’s video games on the BBC Sport net pages and app, plus reside radio commentary of Philadelphia Eagles at Buffalo Bills on BBC Radio 5 Sports activities Further and BBC Sounds. The Entire 10 Yards, BBC Sport’s weekly NFL programme, also makes a speciality of the league’s pleasurable tales
‘The air of a man announcing goodbye’
In that GQ interview, Kelce stated the 2023 and 2024 seasons “have not been to my commonplace”. Statistically, his manufacturing did decline in each of these years.
There used to be a shrimp uptick this season and he remains the crew’s main receiver, however Kelce has registered valid one reception in two of the previous three video games.
Kelce knows Kansas City are in transition and although Mahomes – who has torn ligaments in his left knee – can play on the initiate of subsequent season, he isn’t very at chance of be fully fit. There just isn’t this form of thing as a guarantee they will invent a without prolong return to the play-offs.
If Kelce commits to every other year, he could well perhaps merely not be ready to support the Chiefs come all as soon as more to the mountain top, however he would be pleased the chance to tell their contemporary-observe roster on the correct path.
He gave nothing away sooner than the loss to the Titans, telling journalists: “I could well perhaps perhaps somewhat purchase the level of curiosity on this crew correct now.”
But the style Kelce blended with fans in Tennessee, he had the air of a man who used to be announcing goodbye.
He now has the chance to tell a festive farewell on home soil at Arrowhead, the scene of most of his most attention-grabbing triumphs.