Thought for sure it was because he didn’t want to have to help his mom with her home renovations.
It was announced yesterday that Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce will return for a 14th season, putting an end to speculation over the offseason that he would be retiring to pursue a career in television broadcasting.
The 2025 season was a tough one for Kelce, who had considered retirement after the previous season, but decided to run it back after the team got destroyed by the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.
What was supposed to be a redemption season following the Super Bowl loss turned into a nightmare for Kelce, who finished the season with his fewest receptions since 2015, his second season in the league.
He also made some big drops that ended up costing the Chiefs in games, including at the end of a game against the Houston Texans that led to a game-sealing interception.
Of course off the field Travis has not only his New Heights podcast with his brother Jason Kelce, but he’s also busy planning a wedding to his fiancée Taylor Swift. And at this point he’s one of the older players on the Chiefs at 37, and in fact is the only player left who has been on a Chiefs team that didn’t make the playoffs.
Naturally, there was a lot of speculation that Kelce would be hanging it up at the end of the season, especially given the fact that his current contract expired at the end of the 2025 season. (Swifties were also convinced he would retire after his 13th season because 13 is Taylor Swift’s lucky number, but then again they’re also insane).
But this afternoon, Kelce joined the Pat McAfee Show to discuss his decision to return on a 1-year, $12 million contract with incentives that could push that number up to $15 million – which is well below what he could have made if he had decided to take a job in television.
According to the tight end, it wasn’t really as dramatic of a decision as it seemed from the outside:
“It was pretty short and brief, and the Chiefs knew where I was the entire time on it. I think you always need to take a step back. You always need to take a step back, breathe, let the emotions of the season settle down and see where the body is and things like that. But man, I’m still in love with this game. I still love going to work, putting on the pads, grinding it out, and just, you know, playing the game.”
And as for the speculation that Kelce could test the free agency market and potentially sign with another team? Well it doesn’t sound like that was ever really a possibility:
“I think my best opportunity was playing for the Chiefs yet again, and uh and running this thing back with Pat Mahomes and Coach Reed, and got my guy Eric Bieniemy, Coach Bieniemy back. There’s a lot of pieces in Kansas City that I just absolutely love and I can’t wait to get back in the building with them.”
Of course there was also speculation that his upcoming wedding to Swift would weigh into Kelce’s decision to hang it up so he could spend more time with his new wife. But according to Travis, seeing Swift perform at the top of her game only motivated him even more to want to come back:
“We share the same love for what we do, and fortunately we’ve had this desire since we were kids in our selective professions. And it’s just amazing to see her keep going to the table, keep finding new things to write about, keep finding new melodies, and things like that. And on top of that, still seeing her have that love and joy in what she does.
Yeah, of course that’s motivating. That’s motivating for anybody to see, let alone my fiancée, and knowing that I’m going through something where I’m trying to figure out exactly what the future holds for me.
Something like that definitely motivates me to say, ‘You know what, I’m not done, either.’ I’ve still got some ideas in the back of my mind and still got some juice left to play this game.”
Honestly, you’ve gotta respect a couple that’s so supportive of each other’s careers and wants the other to be their best at whatever they do.
Now, let’s see if Kelce and the Chiefs can get it turned around after missing the playoffs last season.
