Travis Kelce is widely regarded as one of the best football tight ends of all time. He has played for the Kansas City Chiefs ever since he was drafted by the Chiefs in the 2013 NFL Draft. He has since won the Super Bowl LIV and is a 7-time Pro Bowler. He currently holds the record for most consecutive seasons with 1,000 yards receiving by a tight end, and also the record for most revising yards by a tight end (1,416). He was also named to the NFL 2010’s All-Decade Team.

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Who is Travis Kelce?

Travis Kelce was born on October 5, 1989, in Westlake, Ohio. He attended Cleveland Heights High School in Cleveland Heights, which is his hometown. He excelled in football, basketball, and baseball at high school and was rated a two-star recruit by scouting agencies.

Kelce joined his elder brother Jason, who is also an NFL player, at the University of Cincinnati to play his college football for the Bearcats from 2008-2012. Of the 4 years with the Bearcats, he redshirted his freshman year and was suspended in his sophomore year for testing positive for marijuana. He enjoyed his best season in 2012 when he made 45 receptions for 722 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns. This saw him earn first-team all-conference honours and in March 2013, he was named the College Football Performance Awards Tight End of the Year. 

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He entered the 2013 NFL Draft and the Kansas City Chiefs drafted him in the 3rd round as a 63rd overall pick on a 4-year $3.12 million rookie contract. His rookie season was a write off though, as knee surgery meant he only had the chance to make a brief debut in 2013, which was nothing more than a footnote. 

In 2014, his first tangible season in the NFL, he became the Chiefs’ leading receiver with 67 receptions for  862 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns. The following season he made at least one reception in every game he played and was ranked a top-5 tight end by ESPN for his efforts that yielded 72 receptions for 875 yards and 5 touchdowns. He also got his first Pro Bowl call-up.

Kelce was rewarded by the Chiefs with a 5-year $46 million contract extension in January 2016, and that seemed to open the floodgates for his career. That year, enjoyed the first of his 1000-plus yards seasons when he made 85 receptions for 1,125 yards and 4 touchdowns and has never looked back since. The following season saw him finish with 1,038 yards and was ranked 24th on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2018 by his peers. 

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In 2018, the emergence of quarterback Patrick Mahomes at the Chiefs helped Kelce continue his purple patch in the NFL. That season, he broke the record for most receiving yards by a tight end in a single season in the history of the NFL, although that record was broken within an hour by 49ers tight end George Kittle. He finished that season with 1,336 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns from his 103 receptions.

2019 was a special season for Kelce and the Chiefs. After a regular season in which he recorded 97 receptions for 1,229 yards and 5 touchdowns, the Chiefs progressed in the playoffs and went all the way to the Super Bowl LIV. Facing the San Francisco 49ers, Kelce made 6 receptions for 43 yards and a touchdown as the Chiefs went on to win the Bowl 31–20, and Kelce earned his first ring.

The following season which was a brilliant one once again for Kelce ended in heartbreak though. Kelce broke the single-season yardage record for a tight end that Kittle had set in 2018 by finishing with 1,416 yards and he also made a career-high 105 receptions. The Chiefs went all the way to feature in their second consecutive Super Bowl, but facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this time, the Chiefs fell to a humbling 31–9 loss.

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In 2021, Kelce became the longest serving member of the Chiefs and in the second game of the season became the fastest tight end to record 8,000 career yards, and in Week 16 became the fastest to reach 9,000 yards. He missed his first game since his ill-fated rookie season due to testing positive for COVID but still finished with 92 receptions for 1,125 yards and 9 touchdowns, thus getting called up for his seventh consecutive Pro Bowl.