Travis Kelce: The Complete Transformation Of The Kansas City Chiefs Player
Travis Kelce has transformed from a versatile young athlete into one of the most talented tight ends in the NFL; he's an eight-time Pro Bowler and has been named a first-team All-Pro four times. But if you're a Swiftie, the two Super Bowl rings that the Kansas City Chiefs player owns aren't nearly as important as the knowledge that his celebratory bow-and-arrow pose is strikingly similar to a gesture Taylor Swift makes while performing her song "The Archer." (This observation went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, BTW.)
While pregnant with Travis, his mom, Donna Kelce, seemed to have some inkling that her youngest son would grow up to be a heartbreaker. On "New Heights" — the podcast Travis co-hosts with his older brother, Jason Kelce — Donna revealed that she named Travis after a soap opera character whom she found devastatingly handsome. She then fibbed to her husband, Ed Kelce, and said that the moniker was inspired by one of the rambunctious boys in the 1987 movie "Overboard."
It's fitting that Travis' name comes from television; in addition to being an incredible athlete, he's quite the showman. Even before Swift entered the picture and burned up the internet by becoming the biggest star of Sunday Night Football, Travis seemed destined for a potential second act as an entertainer. His transformation into an all-around superstar wouldn't have been possible without a family that helped him chase his dreams — and a healthy sibling rivalry also didn't hurt.
His family fueled his passion for sports
Travis Kelce grew up shadowing Jason Kelce in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. According to Donna Kelce, he didn't just want to do everything his big brother did; he wanted to beat him at it. "It was always a competition," she told the New York Post. "Who gets to the table first. Who's got the last chicken wing. Who's gonna get in the front seat of the car." While Travis and Jason felt driven to compete from a young age, Donna didn't allow them to play peewee football. Safety was a concern, as was the possibility of her boys learning the game from an underqualified coach. Instead, Travis and Jason played backyard football with their father, Ed Kelce. "He pushed us to want to win the game, and he pushed us to want to get better," Travis told "The Players' Tribune" But it was also important to Ed that his sons had a good time.
Travis believes that his natural athletic ability comes from his mom, but it was his dad who introduced him to a variety of sports. In addition to football, the Kelce brothers played street hockey, baseball, and handball. To say the boys were a handful would be an understatement; according to Travis, broken windows were not an uncommon occurrence in the Kelce household. On "New Heights," he revealed that his rowdy behavior also got him in trouble at preschool. After he threw a chair at his teacher, he got kicked out.
Travis Kelce wanted to play hockey in Canada
By the time he reached middle school, the sport Travis Kelce felt most drawn to had become hockey. On "New Heights," Donna Kelce said that she always tried to support her sons when they discovered something they were passionate about as kids, but one thing she wouldn't do for Travis was allow him to leave home for hockey as an eighth grader. Travis explained that he got scouted during a tournament and was encouraged to join the junior leagues in Canada. This would have been a crucial step toward playing in the NHL someday. "It was the coolest day of my life," he said. But his parents agreed that letting him go was a terrible idea. "I'm like, 'I'm not letting somebody else raise my kids, I'm sorry,'" Donna recalled. As for Ed Kelce, Travis said his dad's big concern was that he'd struggle in school.
Speaking of school, Jason Kelce remembered his brother as being the type of troublemaker who could get off with a slap on the wrist because his teachers liked him. When Travis was in the fifth grade, one of his visits to the principal's office for getting into a fight ended with him being handed a pair of Cleveland Cavaliers tickets. Travis explained that he had won an art contest, and he was allowed to go home early with his prize. "It wasn't even called a suspension; it was called a day off," Jason recalled on "New Heights."
He was popular in high school
According to Travis Kelce's high school football coach Mike Jones, the future NFL star was never a nose-to-the-grindstone type of guy. "He was a jokester and he wanted to play a little bit," Jones told Cleveland.com. But Kelce wasn't just popular with his peers because he was the class clown. "He just had a swagger to him that made him just who he is now," said Cleveland Heights High School offensive coordinator Kahari Hicks. Making sure that he looked his best was also important to Kelce. His hometown barber, Alex Quintana, told ESPN that Kelce worked his charismatic magic on the security guard at school so that he could sneak out and get his hair cut. Quintana recalled Kelce telling him that football players were allowed to leave school early on game days. But when the barber told Kelce that his coach would soon be coming in to get his own hair cut, Kelce's lie became obvious; he reacted by bolting for the door.
Jones told NFL.com that Kelce's female classmates were especially fond of him. He was such a big ladies' man that his coaches worried about all the attention he got adversely affecting his performance on the field. "He was a good-looking kid, as you can see now," said Jones. "Travis just had that swag, and the girls were just all over him. That was a thing that we had to make sure we tried to monitor a little bit."
A failing grade dashed one of his dreams
In high school, Travis Kelce was one of those rare athletes who excelled at every sport he tried. He played basketball and pitched on the baseball team, and his talent on the turf earned him the starring role of Cleveland Heights' quarterback. Jeff Rotsky, who coached Travis during his senior year, told Cleveland.com, "Trav, he's the only human being I've ever known that could have been a Division I football, basketball, and baseball player. ... He was unbelievable."
But Travis found his strength and speed useless in the classroom. "I wasn't the best student in terms of reading and doing math and everything," he told People. One class he struggled with in particular was French. When he failed it as a freshman in 2005, he missed out on his only opportunity to play alongside Jason Kelce as a Cleveland Heights Tiger. (Sacré bleu!) Donna Kelce told the New York Post that Travis could have gone to summer school to make up for his failing grade, but she wouldn't let him; instead, he learned a valuable lesson in accountability.
Travis still got to spend time with his brother on the sidelines, however. In his role as "Trainer Trav," he offered assistance to injured teammates and made sure that they stayed well-hydrated during games. "That was the start of my appreciation for the anatomy of the body, understanding being healthy and at your peak athleticism at all times," Travis told Men's Health.
Jason Kelce came to his rescue in college
Travis Kelce's decision about where to go to college was easy; as was his nature, he followed Jason Kelce. Travis continued playing quarterback at the University of Cincinnati, but after his redshirt freshman year, he lost the starting quarterback position to another player in 2009. So, he wasn't exactly the team's MVP when he tested positive for marijuana. He lost his scholarship over the failed drug test, along with his reason for being in Cincinnati.
Instead of going home to lick his wounds, Travis moved in with Jason. "I wasn't paying rent, he was helping me with food, so I was literally living off him for quite a while down there and he was my lifeline," Travis told The Guardian. So he wasn't quite as much of a financial burden, Travis got a telemarketing job asking people for their opinions about the Affordable Care Act. "I was just getting yelled at every single day," he recalled to NFL.com.
Jason went to bat for his baby bro and managed to convince the UC coaches to let him rejoin the team. However, Travis had to agree to a key change: he'd be playing tight end. "I hadn't even played the position one time, but I was confident I'd be all right," Travis said in a Grantland interview. The experience taught him what a treasure his older brother is. "When I say I owe it all to him, I really do," he told The Guardian.
Ozzie Newsome called him out over his hothead behavior
Travis Kelce ended his collegiate football career on a high note when he was named tight end of the year at the 2012 College Football Performance Awards. But during the 2013 NFL scouting combine, Baltimore Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome was not as excited to talk to Travis as Travis was to talk to him. Growing up in The Forest City, Travis had naturally become a Cleveland Browns fan. So, he couldn't wait to tell Newsome, a former Browns tight end, that his family owned an autographed photo of him, per GQ. It seemed like a serendipitous meeting with destiny — until Newsome dispensed with the niceties and forced Travis to watch a compilation video of some of his hotheaded behavior on the field. Travis' propensity for drawing penalty flags was clearly an issue for Newsome, whose first question for him was, "Son, are you a f***ing a**hole?"
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid also dropped some expletives during a phone conversation with Travis. "He goes, 'Yeah, listen. Are you gonna f*** this up?'" Travis recalled to Sports Illustrated. Apparently, Travis' word wasn't good enough because Reid asked to speak to Jason Kelce. Reid had previously coached the Philadelphia Eagles, so he knew how hard of a worker Travis' older brother was. "I still have no idea what he said to Jason. I'm assuming they had a mutual agreement, like, 'If he f***s this up, we're both kicking his a**,'" Travis said.
His NFL rookie season was cut short
After getting drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013, Travis Kelce paid tribute to the important role Jason Kelce played in his NFL career by rocking the number 87 on his jersey; Travis told NFL Films he chose it because it's Jason's birth year. Unfortunately, Travis didn't get much of an opportunity to prove himself on the field during his rookie season. At training camp, he suffered a bone bruise in his knee and later had to undergo microfracture surgery to repair a cartilage defect. He played in just one game that season.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Travis confessed to partying like a rock star after getting injured; he even had to move because the amount of activity at his apartment was angering his neighbors. He also started spending like a rock star. While he'd signed a four-year, $3.12 million rookie contract that included a $703,304 signing bonus, he confessed to almost going broke during his first year in the NFL. On "New Heights," he said he was left with around $600,000 of his bonus to spend after taxes. "The only thing I really got left to show for that money is a pair of some of my favorite shoes," he shared. Those shoes were a pair of Nike Air Mags inspired by the sneakers Marty McFly wears in "Back to the Future," which cost him around $10,000. Another big expenditure for Travis was bottle service at clubs.
He appeared on a dating series
It wasn't long before the football world found out that Travis Kelce is a flashy guy. On "Club Shay Shay," Kelce told Shannon Sharpe that he purchased a Rolex during his rookie year, and after he scored his first NFL touchdown, he celebrated by doing the Shmoney Dance.
While speaking to Sports Illustrated, Kelce revealed that he's a believer in that old mantra that's never failed the Kardashians: "Any publicity's good publicity." However, he was initially hesitant to sign on for the 2016 E! reality series "Catching Kelce." The premise was almost the same as "The Bachelor," but there was a twist: each U.S. state was represented by the 50 women competing for Kelce's affection. He turned E! down a few times but eventually caved because he was paying the price for being irresponsible with his money. "They came to me with an offer financially, I was just like, 'Alright, man, I've got to do this,'" he said on "The Pivot Podcast."
Kelce was unhappy with the finished product. "I don't think I got portrayed as myself," he said. His relationship with the winner, Kentucky native Maya Benberry, was also short-lived. Not long after he and Benberry broke up, he met long-term girlfriend Kayla Nicole via social media. Kelce told E! News that he got Nicole's attention by liking every one of her posts. "I was just stalking her and then finally on New Year's, she gave in," he said.
His first NFL matchup against his brother
The Kelce brothers will never be on the field at the same time, as they both play offense, but it was still a big story when they played in their first NFL game together in 2017. Ahead of the game, Jason Kelce spoke to Chiefs.com about Travis Kelce's pre-game behavior. "He's a very humble, very reserved guy. He doesn't talk any trash whatsoever, as you've seen," he quipped. By then, Travis had established himself as the more impulsive, playful sibling; he was known for dancing in the end zone, and he hadn't quite kicked his collegiate habit of drawing penalties.
It was during that game at Arrowhead Stadium where Travis and Jason Kelce's mother, Donna Kelce, debuted her split Chiefs-Eagles jersey with Travis' number on the front and Jason's number on the back. Kansas City won the game 27-20, and Travis contributed to the victory by taking a flying leap into the end zone to score a touchdown. "Half of me is — that was a huge point in the game — so I'm furious," Jason recalled to NFL Films. "And the other half of me is like, 'That's a real good play, Trav. That was really impressive.'" After the game, the brothers exchanged jerseys and Travis surprised Jason by kissing him on the cheek. But Andy Reid might have later rained on Travis' parade; according to Arrowhead Pride, the coach seemed pretty peeved about Travis earning a taunting penalty during the game.
His big fashion moment after a Super Bowl victory
The Kansas City Chiefs' 2019 season culminated in a Super Bowl victory, making both Kelce brothers decorated NFL champs. After the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, Jason Kelce dressed like a Mummer and delivered a passionate speech during his team's victory parade. Travis Kelce's outfit wasn't as colorful or sparkly, but it cost a pretty penny; according to TMZ, his charcoal Louis Vuitton coat retailed for nearly $19,000. The shearling outerwear was designed to be warm and cozy, but we're guessing Travis was left feeling a bit chilly when Patrick Mahomes doused him with beer. Travis had climbed down to the street from atop his team's double-decker bus so that Mahomes could find out if his mouth was as easy to target as his hands. (It wasn't.)
Travis' outfit included the custom WWE championship belt that was gifted to the Chiefs. He was clearly feeling the celebratory vibe (and all those suds he'd been slamming) because he ended his speech with a Beastie Boys lyric: "You gotta fight for your right to party!"
Travis had previously turned the chorus of his favorite song into a pun not long after the Chiefs beat the 49ers 31-20. "You've gotta fight for your right to Lombardi!" he sang during his post-game "NFL GameDay Prime" interview. Jason crashed the interview to congratulate Travis and make a prediction about his victory speech. "He's gonna have the best speech — next to mine," he quipped.
Travis Kelce became a popular podcaster
Right after he won his first Super Bowl, USA Today quoted Travis Kelce as telling reporters, "Motivated to do it again, for sure.” These were not hollow words; the following season, the Kansas City Chiefs made it to the championship game again. But this time, they suffered a disappointing loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "It don't mean a thing if you ain't got the ring, baby," Travis said during a SiriusXM NFL Radio interview (the man clearly knows the value of a good accessory).
Travis didn't get another shot at getting a ring in 2022, but he did start making some big moves off the field. He and Jason Kelce launched their "New Heights" podcast, which is named after the part of Cleveland where they grew up. Listeners quickly discovered that the siblings didn't need to rely on guests to be entertaining; during the first episode, they argued over which of their Super Bowl wins was more "epic." Jason told his brother, "You have more Pro Bowls; you have more All-Pros. Let me have the Super Bowl, okay? Just stop being selfish, all right? You're better looking. Let me have one goddamn thing, please." By the time the third episode aired, their show had become Spotify's most popular sports podcast, and the Kelces further capitalized on its success by launching a line of "New Heights" apparel. "It's fun to just do something with my brother weekly," Travis told Forbes in a December 2022 interview.
The Kelce Bowl
As soon as the sports world learned which teams would be heading to Super Bowl LVII, every member of the Kelce family topped the list of who the media wanted to talk to. For the first time ever, two brothers would be playing in the championship game. Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce's poor parents had to endure endless questions about who they were rooting for, and their sons even grilled them about this on "New Heights." Everyone also wanted to know how the brothers felt about their sibling rivalry reaching new heights. In a Fox Sports interview, Travis admitted that he and Jason had thought about the possibility of the Kelce Bowl happening before it became a reality, and he already seemed to be thinking about the inevitable Hollywood take on his family's football fairytale. "I'll tell you what, you couldn't have scripted it any better," he said.
Unfortunately, the game was going to be bittersweet for one Kelce brother, and it ended up being the one who likely had fewer years left to get another ring. But Jason was a gracious loser; he gave his younger brother a big hug and told him, "Go celebrate." On "New Heights," Jason dispelled rumors that he had told Travis, "F*** you, congratulations," and he revealed what was on his mind during the emotional moment they shared on the field. "I knew that you were going to feel bad for me, and I didn't want that," he told Travis.
Travis Kelce is a natural entertainer
Back in 2014, Travis Kelce spoke to Grantland about why he danced to celebrate touchdowns. "I enjoy being the one on TV. I enjoy being the show. I enjoy making people laugh," he said. Fast forward to 2023, and the jocular jock was given a huge opportunity to showcase his comedic ability beyond doing a few quick dance moves. In an interview with Uproxx, "Saturday Night Live" cast member Heidi Gardner — who is a diehard Chiefs fan — revealed that she'd been lobbying hard to get Kelce on the show long before he became a two-time Super Bowl champ. His Kelce Bowl victory finally earned him an invite, and Gardner was thrilled; she even personally ensured that Kelce had some of his favorite snacks to munch on while they were at work. "I was asking him, 'What's your game day routine?' He was like, 'Oh, you wouldn't believe it. But I eat Uncrustables,'" she recalled.
Kelce was game to participate in some pretty wacky sketches. In one, he creeped everyone out at an American Girl Café by dining alone with two doll companions. His performance was rewarded with a remark from Lorne Michaels that comics would kill to be able to put on their résumés. "I think he killed it," Michaels told Vanity Fair. "He's a natural. He was a presence from the moment he walked out." On "New Heights," Kelce said he had a blast and would definitely do the show again.
Swifties catch Kelce fever
The year 2023 just kept getting better for Travis Kelce when he signed with CAA after his "Saturday Night Live" triumph. But nothing will compare to what happened after he revealed himself to be a Swiftie on "New Heights." It started with a story about Travis' failure to give Taylor Swift a friendship bracelet during one of her Arrowhead Stadium concerts. Then, a series of events transpired that seemed as likely as snow on the beach; there's no way Swift attending a Kansas City Chiefs game with "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner was on anyone's 2023 Bingo card. Swifties soon became desperate to learn everything they could about Travis, and they naturally turned to his podcast. Travis and Jason Kelce even filmed a special edition of one of their "New Heights" segments: "No Dumb Questions (Swifties' Version)." They earnestly tried to help Swifties better understand the game of football by answering questions such as, "What's a field goal?"
The NFL couldn't get enough of "The Traylor Show"; its Instagram bio was even changed to read "Chiefs are 2-0 as Swifties" after Kansas City won the back-to-back games Swift attended. Travis flagged the league for excessive celebration. "They're overdoing it a little bit for sure," he said on "New Heights." But while speaking to the media, he revealed that the attention didn't bother him. "I was on top of the world after the Super Bowl," he said, "and now I'm even more on top of the world."