Travis Kelce addressed speculation that the 2025 Super Bowl marked his last NFL game in Wednesday’s emotional episode of his “New Heights” podcast.
“I know everybody wants to know whether or not I’m playing next year,” the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 35, told his brother and co-host, Jason Kelce, who retired from football in March 2024.
“Right now, I’m just kicking everything down the road. … I’m not making any crazy decisions, but right now, the biggest thing is just being there for my teammates and being there for my coaches, understanding that there’s a lot goes into this thing.”
Travis acknowledged that he has “been fortunate over the past five, six years” because he has “played more football than anybody.”
“And it’s because the people that are in that building, and the fact that we keep going to these AFC Championships and these Super Bowls, that means I’m playing an extra three games more than everybody else in the entire league,” he commented.
“That’s a lot of wear and tear on your body, and it’s a lot of time spent in the building focusing on your craft, focusing on the task at hand, every challenge that you set up for yourself, and that process can be grueling. It can weigh on you.”
The “Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?” host emphasized that the extra time on the field can either make a person a better player or “drive [them] crazy” — before confirming that it did the latter for him.
Travis then theorized, “I think that it happens as you kind of tail off toward the back nine of your career … as you see yourself or not feel yourself have the success that you once used to have. Man, it’s a tough pill to swallow.
“And then on top of that, to not be there in the biggest moments, knowing your team’s counting on you, man … it’s just a tough reality.”
The “Grotesquerie” actor concluded that he was “going to take some time to figure it out,” adding, “I owe it to my teammates that if I do come back then it’s going to be something that is a wholehearted decision; I’m not half-assing it.
“I’m fully here for them. I think I can play — whether or not I’m motivated and it’s the best decision for me as a man, as a human, as a person to take on all that responsibility.”
During the same episode, Travis addressed his team’s Super Bowl loss on Sunday, saying, “[It] just wasn’t our day. Couldn’t find a lick of momentum. I’m kicking myself for some of the tiny, tiny decisions I made on the field.”
After calling the blowout game a “tough pill to swallow,” an emotional Travis added, “I love my teammates. I love my coaches. Chiefs Kingdom, I’m sorry for how it ended.
“I wish I had made better decisions early on to help my guy [Patrick Mahomes] out and help my team find that momentum and that confidence. But you know, I just have to tip my hat to the [Philadelphia] Eagles.”
After hoping to score their third-straight Super Bowl title, the Chiefs lost to the Eagles 22-40.
Following the unexpected defeat, Travis was seen stoically walking off the field before emotionally making his way to the VIP suite where his family and girlfriend Taylor Swift awaited him.
Travis then skipped the Chiefs’ afterparty and instead, according to a source, opted to hang out in his hotel room with Swift, also 35, and a few close friends.
During an interview right after the game wrapped, Travis admitted to reporters that the Chiefs played badly.
“I mean, they just got after us on all three phases, and then on top of that, you know, turnovers, penalties, playing behind the sticks on offense,” he said.
“We haven’t played that bad all year. You don’t lose like that without everything going bad.”
However, he credited his teammates with “fighting until the end forever.”
“Even with the score late, we were always gonna fight,” the “Catching Kelce” alum noted. “We just couldn’t find that spark. We couldn’t find that momentum.”
Before the Super Bowl, Travis had said in a press conference that he saw himself “hopefully still playing football” in three years.
