By most standards, the Kansas City Chiefs had a tremendous season in 2024. The team went 15-2, earned the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs and rode that success all the way to the Super Bowl.
Under the surface, though, there were signs the team's excellence was overstated. The Chiefs barely won a number of close games during the regular season and, despite being the best player in football, Patrick Mahomes failed to put up MVP numbers despite the team trying to give him some new weapons. All of that seemed to get exposed in the Super Bowl, where the Chiefs were trounced 40-22 by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Star tight end Travis Kelce knows he was part of that problem. After a decade of dominance, Kelce has seen his numbers decline in recent years. With the Chiefs' pass catchers plagued by injuries last season, Kelce should have turned in a monster year. Instead, he finished with his lowest yardage and touchdown total since his rookie season, when he played in one game.
His own struggles, combined with the Super Bowl loss, weighed heavy on Kelce, who told GQ he's committed to getting back to an elite level in 2025.
“Win a Super Bowl is the only goal,” Kelce says. “It’s the only goal. It’s every goal.” It’s been nearly four months since that defeat, and Kelce is still hard on himself about it. “I think it might have slipped a little bit because I did have a little bit more focus in trying to set myself up. And opportunities came up where I was excited to venture into a new world of acting and being an entertainer,” he says. “I don’t say this as ‘I shouldn’t have done it.’ I’m just saying that my work ethic is such that I have so much pride in how I do things that I never want the product to tail off, and I feel like these past two years haven’t been to my standard.” He adds, “I just have such a motivation to show up this year for my guys.”
Kelce admitted he might have "slipped a little bit" due to focusing on things outside football. Kelce has been involved in quite a bit in the entertainment realm in recent years. His "New Heights" podcast with his brother took off and is among the most popular sports podcasts around, he took on an acting role on "Grotesquerie" and hosted "Saturday Night Live."
During that period, he also started dating pop superstar Taylor Swift, who he discussed in the GQ profile. Kelce's love and admiration for Swift come through in the piece, and Kelce also talks about how he got Swift to really love football.
“I sort of made her a football fan,” Kelce says. “She is the most engulfed fan now. She knows what the injury reports look like. She understands what special situations are, third and short—all these things because she just naturally loves to hear about my job.”
Whether Kelce is able to return to an elite level at his job remains to be seen. He's already put himself among the best tight ends to ever play the game and is easily one of the best football players of his era.
But Kelce will turn 36 during the 2025 NFL season, and it's possible his recent decline is more related to age than commitment. Given Kelce's greatness, though, it's foolish to bet against him turning in at least one more phenomenal season before he hangs up his cleats.
It certainly sounds like he's working hard to make that a reality.
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