Chiefs’ Travis Kelce not thinking about retiring anytime soon: ‘I’m going to do it until the wheels fall off’
Kelce is having too much fun playing the game of football
Travis Kelce doesn’t have an answer as to when he wants his NFL career to end, because he really isn’t sure. Despite a media empire with the “New Heights” podcast with his brother, Jason Kelce, and a broadcasting career waiting for him, the 34-year-old tight end signed a contract extension with the Kansas City Chiefs that will keep him around for at least the next three seasons.
“I can’t put a time frame on it. I love coming to work every single day,” Kelce said after Tuesday’s minicamp session, via team transcript. “Obviously, I know that there’s opportunities outside of football for me, and I think you have to keep in perspective that I’m still a little kid when I come into this building.”
Kelce has shown no signs of slowing down, even if he fell 16 yards shy of his eighth consecutive 1,000-yard receiving season (he has the record for NFL tight ends with seven 1,000-yard seasons). Kelce had 93 catches for 984 yards and five touchdowns last season, his lowest yardage total since 2015 and lowest touchdown total since 2019. The nine-time Pro Bowl tight end also was in his age-34 season, making some wonder if Kelce was starting to decline.
The postseason changed that narrative. Kelce finished with 32 catches for 355 yards and three touchdowns as the Chiefs won their third Super Bowl title in five years. This included 11 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown in the AFC Championship game, and nine catches for 93 yards in Super Bowl LVIII.
The postseason showed Kelce is still at the top of his game, showing no signs of slowing down. Kelce will try to accomplish this as long as he can.
“I know I’m 34 years old, about to be 35, but I have a love to do this right here in the middle of the heat in June. I love coming to work every single day and doing this. I’m going to do it until the wheels fall off,” Kelce said. “Hopefully that doesn’t happen anytime soon, but I can definitely understand that its towards the end of the road than it is the beginning of it.
“I just have to make sure I’m set up for after football as well.”
There’s still some history to be made for Kelce as he climbs up the record books on the all-time tight end list. Kelce has 11,328 receiving yards in his career, just 514 yards away from passing Antonio Gates (11,841) for third all time. Kelce is 3,800 receiving yards away from passing Tony Gonzalez (15,127) for the most receiving yards by a tight end in NFL history.
Playing four more years at the level Kelce has been accustomed to would get him past Gonzalez. Kelce’s banking on staying at the top of his game, and continuing to make deep playoff runs with the Chiefs.
“You have a certain focus to each day set yourself up to get better and better,” Kelce said. “Seeing where the team is now, you have to find a way to play your best from this point on all the way till hopefully January and February.
“The road has started, and I’m excited for it but I only know one way and that’s the only way and that’s the Andy Reid way.”
