Travis Kelce isn’t hanging up his jersey just yet.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end has signed on for another season with the NFL team, choosing not to retire after the team’s Super Bowl 2025 loss against the Philadelphia Eagles.
On the Wednesday, Mar. 5, episode of Travis and his brother Jason Kelce’s podcast New Heights, Travis addressed his decision to stay on the field.
Jason, 37, who retired from the Eagles in 2024, asked Travis how much the Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss last month factored into his decision.
“It was probably the biggest factor,” Travis, 35, admitted, calling the defeat an “all-time low.”
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Jason then asked Travis whether he would have retired had the team won, scoring their history-making three-peat win.
“I mean, it’s a pretty cool way to go out, but I think I would still have this love for the game,” Travis shared.
Though Travis has taken on several projects in his off-season, including acting in Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie and in Happy Gilmore 2 and hosting Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?, he says it’s his love of the game that’s brought him back for another season.
“The biggest thing is that I f—– love playing the game of football. I love playing,” he shared. “I still think I can play it at a high level, and possibly at a higher level than I did last year.”
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Getting critical about his 2024-2025 season performance, Travis added, “I don’t think it was my best outing. I think I let my guys down in a lot more moments than I helped them, especially if you look at my track record and how I’ve been in years past.”
“I got a bad taste in my mouth for how I ended the year and how well I was playing and how accountable I was for the people around me,” he continued.
And when it came to making the decision, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend says he didn’t overanalyze.
“It’s just off a feel. I’m not a big measure the pros and cons [guy],” he explained. “Pure gut feeling… I pulled the trigger as soon as I knew that feeling.”
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Travis broke the news that he was returning for another season through a text on The Pat McAfee Show on Feb. 27. He told McAfee in the message that he was “coming back for sure” and added, “Gonna try and get to the best shape I’ve been this offseason and get back to the mountaintop.”
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