On Monday night, at the end of the eleventh week of action in the NFL, the champions of the last Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs, found themselves the finalists and this time the tide turned in favor of the Philadelphia Eagles.
21-17 on the scoresheet, to the advantage of Jalen Hurts and his teammates.
Even before the presentation of this duel between two teams at the top of the rankings, the name Travis Kelce was on everyone’s lips.
Well, there was also Taylor Swift, but she’s always mentioned because of her relationship with the Chiefs’ star player. Without this blossoming love, the great singing star wouldn’t be flirting with the NFL.
In short, Kelce has been in the headlines since the start of the season and was featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal early in his week before facing the Eagles and his older brother Jason Kelce.
On the agenda for this interview: Swift fever, of course, conquering the Super Bowl and, above all, the inevitable arrival of life after the NFL for the 34-year-old tight end.
“I’m thinking about retirement more than ever”
Kelce confided this to the newspaper as he laced up his cleats for his 11th NFL season, all in a Chiefs uniform.
Since being inserted into Kansas City’s starting lineup in 2014, Kelce has missed just four of a possible 155 regular-season games. In addition, he played 18 playoff games with his team, which corresponds to an additional season.
Except that despite his hard work, Kelce went under the knife a dozen times to heal various wounds.
A knee injury caused him to miss the season opener against the Lions, a Chiefs loss. He has been in his position ever since, maintaining the excellent offensive pace he is used to.
Since the start of the season, Kelce has accumulated 641 yards and 5 touchdowns. He is once again on pace for a 1,000-yard season. It would be the winger’s eighth appearance in a row.
No other tight end has more than three in a row.
On the other hand, Kelce is still far from the historical values of Tony Gonzalez at the position, who has accumulated more than 15,000 yards in 270 games. If this trend continues, Kelce, with 153 career games played, will surpass 11,000 yards in the Chiefs’ next game. So he would be three or four seasons away from overtaking Gonzalez and establishing himself at the top of NFL history at the position.
But at 34 years old, it’s increasingly unlikely to expect Kelce to have that many seasons.
Especially through her popular podcast “New Heights,” which she co-hosts with her brother Jason, and her highly publicized relationship with Taylor Swift, life outside reminds her a lot of the two-time Super Bowl champion.
Earlier in the season, before his relationship blossomed and his popularity exploded away from the NFL, Travis Kelce said he would play until “the wheels came off.”
Today, a few weeks before the NFL playoffs, he changed his refrain a bit.
Kelce has a contract through the end of the 2025 season, but we know breaking a contract is easy in the NFL.
If the Chiefs miss the next Super Bowl, will this be Travis Kelce’s last season in the NFL?