Is This the End of an Era? Travis Kelce Considers Retirement ‘More Than Anyone Could Ever Imagine’
It might be the end of an era! Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce recently opened up about retiring and it seemed as though the NFL star, and current boyfriend of Taylor Swift, might ride off into the sunset sooner than anyone thought.
While many of Travis’ friends said that he “lives in the moment,” he admitted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he thinks about retirement “more than anyone could ever imagine.”
“That’s the only thing I’ve never really been open about,” Travis, 34, continued, “The discomfort. The pain. The lingering injuries—the 10 surgeries I’ve had that I still feel every single surgery to this day.”
However, in June 2023, Travis gave a more playful answer when asked how long he planned to play in the professional leagues.
"Till the wheels fall off, baby," he said. "I just love the game. ... I think that kind of keeps me living with, I don't know, a young, fun-loving football player. I get to play a game for a living at the age of 33, 34, and I think that's something -- you know, I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose that excitement that I had for a game when I was a kid."
Tom Melvin, Travis’ tight end coach, said that the former reality TV star has “phenomenal pain tolerance.”
“He’s played through things that other athletes I’ve coached through the years have not been able to push through. Mentally tough—way off the charts,” Tom added.
After 10 seasons in the NFL, Travis has collected more than his fair share of records. The Ohio native holds the NFL record for most consecutive and most overall seasons with 1,000 yards receiving by a tight end, and during week 9 of the 2023 season, he broke the Chiefs’ record for career receiving yards.
As for what Travis might have planned for after his football career, he said he considered broadcasting. According to the WSJ, “Sometimes he sees himself in a broadcasting booth. Sometimes his manager talks about action flicks. (Maybe a Marvel movie? Kelce’s already built like Wolverine.) You also get the sense that Kelce toys with notions of doing some form of comedy. He haunts clubs, lives for open-mic nights, and he’s gotten to be friendly with several rising stand-ups.”
The Super Bowl LVII champion seemed more than content when he was seen snuggling up to Taylor, 33, after her show in Rio de Janeiro on November 11, possibly making the thought of retirement a little easier to stomach.
