KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Travis Kelce etched his name further into NFL lore on Jan. 4, becoming just the third tight end in league history to surpass 13,000 receiving yards. The Kansas City Chiefs star achieved the milestone during a 2-point loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, catching a five-yard pass from third-string quarterback Shane Buechele, who had stepped in after Patrick Mahomes suffered a season-ending ACL injury earlier in the game.
The accomplishment places Kelce alongside legends Jason Witten and Tony Gonzalez as the only tight ends to reach the mark. Mahomes, sidelined but supportive from the bench, celebrated the moment on X, posting simply, “13K!” alongside a strong arm emoji. The victory eluded the Chiefs, ending their 2025 season on a sour note, but Kelce's personal triumph provided a bright spot amid the disappointment.
At 36, Kelce has hinted at retirement being on the horizon, though no firm decision has been made. In a post-game interview on Jan. 4, he reflected on the uncertainty, saying, “I mean, who knows? Who knows? Either it hits me quick, or I’ve got to take some time. I think last year was a little bit easier. I think I knew right away I wanted to give this one a shot. So we’ll see.” This comes after the Chiefs' Christmas Day loss to the Denver Broncos, where Kelce emphasized mentoring younger players, telling reporters according to the Associated Press, “You’ve got everything in the world watching you. You get to go out there with the young guys on primetime television. Young guys getting an opportunity to taste what this NFL life is like.”
Kelce, who proposed to fiancée Taylor Swift in August, plans to consult close confidants before deciding his future. “I’ll let that be a decision I’ll make with my family, friends, the Chiefs organization when the time comes,” he told reporters after the Raiders game. His career, spanning 12 NFL seasons, has been marked by resilience and reinvention, traits that trace back to his college days at the University of Cincinnati.
Born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Kelce has always shouted out his hometown during player introductions on broadcasts, sometimes to the chagrin of his alma mater's alumni. In 2019, during his and brother Jason Kelce's induction into the Cleveland Heights High School Hall of Fame, Travis explained his loyalty, saying, “It’s not because I don’t appreciate the time I had at the University of Cincinnati, because I do, I cherish it dearly. But there was a time when I was at Cincinnati that it wasn't easy for me. It was tough. I got my scholarship taken from me. I did a lot of dumb things.” He added that the diversity of Cleveland Heights “builds something in me,” and that “every single thing I do is for this city.”
That scholarship revocation stemmed from a failed marijuana test after partying on New Year's Eve in New Orleans ahead of the 2010 Sugar Bowl, following Cincinnati's undefeated 2009 season and Big East title. Kelce missed the game, sat out the entire 2010 season under NCAA suspension, and lost his financial aid. He moved in with Jason and teammates at 127 W. Nixon St., taking a job as a telemarketer cold-calling people about the Affordable Care Act. “They did, and Travis could not wait to get back on the field,” according to accounts from that period.
Before football dominated his life, Kelce dabbled in hockey, baseball, and basketball, playing quarterback in high school as a two-star recruit for Cincinnati. His switch to tight end came as a condition of reinstatement after the suspension. As he recalled to Arrowhead Pride after being drafted by the Chiefs in 2013, “We had an awesome quarterback at the time in Zach Collaros and we needed some help in the run game as well as the passing game, so I talked to coach Butch Jones, who was my coach at the time, and he said we need a tight end and my skill-set, athleticism and my direction all transferred over and it worked out perfect for me.” To GQ in 2017, he quipped, “Everybody my entire life had been telling me I was a tight end anyway.”
The Nixon Street house was a hub of college antics for the Kelce brothers. College friend and teammate Tom DeTemple told the New York Times before the 2024 Super Bowl that they “used to love playing Nintendo 64 for hours, smashing the controls and chugging beers at the same time. They would just come up with these random drinking games while playing, and they were incredibly good at it.” Despite the setbacks, Kelce remained proud of his Bearcats roots. Before the 2023 Super Bowl, he declared to reporters, “It's all about Cincinnati, baby. I've always been extremely prideful of coming from the University of Cincinnati.”
Kelce finally earned his degree in interdisciplinary studies in 2022 but missed his original graduation flight. He received his diploma in April 2024 during a surprise ceremony at Cincinnati's Fifth Third Arena after taping a live episode of the New Heights podcast with Jason. Approaching the dean with a beer in hand, he chugged it post-handshake, embodying his unfiltered style. The support from coaches and staff during his low points was pivotal, he said, as “the players, the coaches, the staff that was at the university at the time—really believed in me to be able to turn things around and do better for myself.”
Drafted fifth among tight ends in the third round of 2013 by the Chiefs, Kelce's selection came after his off-field issues lowered his stock. Coach Andy Reid, who had coached Jason in Philadelphia, sought the older brother's endorsement, a move that paid off with three Super Bowl rings for Travis. His pre-game ritual for years involved Randy Newman's “Burn On,” a nod to his Cleveland upbringing and the movie Major League. As he told the NBC Sports podcast PFT Live in 2017, “I'm an east side of Cleveland kid so growing up, I don't know why, but this song brings me back to thinking about family and thinking about where I am in life and how much I appreciate it.”
Interestingly, the Kelce surname has been mispronounced throughout their careers as “Kel-see” instead of rhyming with “else.” Teammate Chris Jones revealed this on Inside the NFL in January, calling it “F--king crazy, right?” The brothers confronted their father Ed on New Heights, with Jason asking, “Why in the world did you change your name out of nowhere and now we are Kel-see? Why did we think that our name was Kel-see for the first 24 years... 27 years of my life, 25 of Trav's?” Ed admitted he “got tired of correcting people” but left it to them.
Kelce's jersey number 87 honors Jason's birth year. “If there is a Kelce legacy, two brothers making it to the NFL, it all started in 1987, because this big guy was born in 1987,” Travis told NFL Films ahead of the 2023 Super Bowl, where the Chiefs faced Jason's Eagles. Off the field, his 87 and Running foundation has supported Operation Breakthrough in Kansas City since 2015, including investing in a Smart Lab and converting a former muffler shop into the Ignition Lab, where kids turn scrap cars into electric vehicles. Kelce even read The Cat in the Hat to children there, donning the iconic hat.
The New Heights podcast, co-hosted with Jason, dubs fans “92 percenters” from Jason's quip about quarterback sneaks succeeding 92 percent of the time for a touchdown. To maintain his physique, Kelce employs three trainers—Alex Skacel, Andrew Spruill, and Laurence Justin Ng—one of whom travels with him. Skacel, also a physical therapist, recounted to the New York Times in April a midnight sprint session in Paris during Fashion Week: “It's midnight, and we're doing sprints over the bridges over the river. No matter where he is, he finds time to get done whatever he needs to get done.”
His personal chef, childhood friend Kumar Ferguson from Cleveland Heights, joined in 2016 after Kelce sought to elevate his diet. Ferguson, previously a truck driver, told Vanity Fair in 2023, “He's like, 'Hey man, I want to take my diet seriously, and take it to the next level.' I'm like, s--t, let's do it. Three or four days later, I was in Kansas City.” Ferguson handles everything from fridge stocking to delivering lunches to the Chiefs' facility. Kelce's facial hair, including his offseason mustache homage to coach Andy Reid, has become a talking point, as he explained on New Heights.
In April 2024, Kelce signed a two-year, $34.25 million contract, becoming the NFL's highest-paid tight end for the first time. This silenced years of underpayment talk, though he told Vanity Fair in 2023, “My managers and agents love to tell me how underpaid I am. Any time I talk about wanting more money, they're just like, 'Why don't you go to the Chiefs and ask them?'” Prioritizing wins over pay, he added, “I'm like, the free market looks like fun until you go somewhere and you don’t win. I love winning. I love the situation I'm in.” Fashion has been a passion since high school, with over 300 sneaker pairs, including ill-fitting size-13 Nike Air Mags bought early in his career.
Among investments, Kelce co-owns Ohio-brewed Garage Beer with Jason, stating in June, “I think everyone knows I like to have a couple beers now and then, so being an owner of Garage Beer and heavily involved in making the best light beer is exciting, man! There is nothing better to bring people together than an ice-cold beer, and for Jason and me that is what beer is all about—friends, family and fun.” His TV tastes include Gossip Girl and The Traitors, and he's endured 10 surgeries, including a rookie-year knee microfracture. Romantically, his connection with Swift began after a failed friendship bracelet attempt at her Eras Tour in Kansas City; she reached out via mutual contacts, as he told WSJ. Magazine.
As Kelce contemplates his next chapter, his legacy—three Super Bowls, record-breaking stats, and off-field impact—looms large. Whether he retires or returns, the tight end position and the NFL owe much to his trailblazing path from Cleveland Heights to gridiron greatness.