Travis Kelce has three Super Bowl rings. He’s a first-ballot, no-brainer Deion Sanders upper room Hall of Famer. Kelce has accomplished everything he could have ever hoped to achieve as a football player.
And it sounds like he knows it. It also sounds like he’s ready to move on.
Would it have been a far more perfect ending to cap a historic Three-Peat before walking off into the sunset with a fourth Lombardi Trophy under his arm? Absolutely. All things considered, it’s already pretty damn perfect for a third-round pick who was once suspended for an entire season at the University of Cincinnati for (God forbid) smoking marijuana.
Beyond becoming one of the best tight ends in NFL history, with regular-season numbers of 1,004 receptions for 12,151 yards and 79 total touchdowns, he’s already established a media empire, from nine-figure podcast to acting to producing to hosting a game show. He hosted SNL, and he nailed it.
At 35, he’s well beyond the normal shelf life for his position. Since 2018, he has played an extra 19 games. In the past three years, the Chiefs have played a total of 58 games.
The seasons are long. The offseasons are short. It’s a massive physical and mental commitment. The decline is coming, if it hasn’t already begun.
Lawrence Taylor once realized the young players around him seemed faster than ever. Bill Parcells told Taylor that’s because he was finally getting slower.
It happens. It’s normal. For Kelce, the performances and the longevity are abnormal. And extraordinary.
No great player wants to hang around for the decline. No one wants the final chapter to undermine the rest of the book.
Chuck Noll referred to a player’s post-football career as his “life’s work.” Kelce has already embarked on something special for his own life’s work, while still grinding as a player.
For now, it seems as if he’s coming to terms with it. That he’s giving himself a little time to ensure that his instincts are accurate. That he’s processing the reality that, once the helmet is off, it’s never going back on — unless and until he plays a football player in a big-budget film.
Regardless, he seems to be leaning against giving it another go. Every player who earns the ability to leave on his own terms (and there aren’t many who do) always wonders whether he could have squeezed another season out of his God-given skills. No player wants to find out the hard way that he couldn’t.
Kelce’s comments from the New Heights podcast create the impression that he’s coming to terms with his gut feeling that it’s time. In time, it will be a surprise if he does anything other than close the book on playing, while opening the door on everything else that awaits.
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