![\"Taylor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/250204-taylor-travis-ch-1252-6f2277.jpg\")
Taylor Swift celebrates with Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs after defeating the Buffalo Bills in Kansas City, Mo., on Jan. 26, 2025.David Eulitt \/ Getty Images file<\/p>\nAt the peak of Kansas City championship runs, as the Chiefs mixed and matched receivers and running backs around star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Kelce was always the team’s pass-catching mainstay, whose ability to ad lib with Mahomes on the field was often otherworldly, and allowed the tight end to excel at finding open space within defenses. <\/p>\n
Last season marked the first time in his career Kelce didn\u2019t play in the playoffs, where he has long shined. In five Super Bowls, including wins to cap the 2019, 2022 and 2023 seasons, Kelce caught 35 passes for 389 yards and two touchdowns. His nine 100-yard games and 178 catches in 25 career playoff games established records that exceeded even the marks of Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice.<\/p>\n
Kelce’s 82 receiving touchdowns tie for 31st all-time. Between 2016-22, he produced seven straight seasons with at least 1,000 yards receiving. During that stretch, he averaged 8.4 touchdowns every regular season and had a remarkable knack for moving the offense down the field, with more than 70% of his receptions resulting in a first down, on average. <\/p>\n
During his last three years, however, Kelce has seen his touchdowns nearly halved, his receptions drop by eight per season and his first-down rate also drop 10 percentage points.<\/p>\n
In this past season\u2019s final game on Jan. 4, Kelce extended his streak of consecutive games with at least one catch to 191, and joined Tim Brown as the only receivers in NFL history with 75-plus receptions in 10 consecutive seasons. Then Kelce said he would \u201cgo through exit meetings and get close to the family and figure things out\u201d regarding his future. <\/p>\n
\u201cWho knows?\u201d Kelce told reporters after the Chiefs\u2019 season-ending loss in Las Vegas on Jan. 4. \u201cEither it hits me quick, or I\u2019ve got to take some time. I think last year was a little bit easier. I think I knew right away I wanted to give this (season) a shot. So we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time, teammates were not convinced Kelce was done with football.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll be back next year,\u201d Chiefs defender Chris Jones said after the regular-season finale. <\/p>\n
Kelce entered the offseason as an unrestricted free agent, able to sign with any team. His decision on retirement presumably included factors far beyond football, as Kelce has career options in entertainment, as well. In recent years, his relationship with Swift helped springboard him into mainstream fame. He hosted “Saturday Night Live,” appeared in shows and movies and co-hosted the “New Heights” podcast with his brother, former All-Pro lineman Jason, that has become one of the country’s most popular podcasts. <\/p>\n
Taylor Swift celebrates with Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs after defeating the Buffalo Bills in Kansas City, Mo., on Jan. 26, 2025.David Eulitt \/ Getty Images file<\/p>\n
Kelce, who also entertained retirement a year ago, said in November that he expected to make his decision by March, at the dawn of NFL free agency. Less than a week after his final game, Kelce said on a \u201cNew Heights\u201d episode that he still loved football and \u201cit\u2019s a tough thing to navigate but at the same time, if my body can heal up and rest up and I can feel confident that I can go out there and give it another 18-, 20-, 21-week run, I think I would do it in a heartbeat. So, I think right now it\u2019s just finding that answer and seeing how the body feels.\u201d<\/p>\n
By late February, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach called Kelce “an icon and hopefully he comes back,” at the NFL’s scouting combine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not your typical, hey, ’27-year-old first time in free agency,'” Veach said. Travis has done everything, he\u2019s accomplished everything, he\u2019s about to get married, he\u2019s got a lot going on. … You need some sort of deadline (or) timeline, but at the same time, it\u2019s Travis Kelce. So, we\u2019re just going to continue to have positive dialogue and see where this thing ends. I think we\u2019re trying to position ourselves that, either way, we have a plan moving forward.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the peak of Kansas City championship runs, as the Chiefs mixed and matched receivers and running backs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-529706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}