Travis Kelce: "These past two years haven't been to my standard"

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has become one of the all-time greats at his position. He’s a walk-in Hall of Famer. He and Jason will inevitably join the Sharpes as the only brothers in Canton.

That doesn’t keep Travis from acknowledging that he can do things even better.

In a new GQ profile, Kelce makes an admission to Sean Manning regarding his focus and preparation on football.

“I think it might have slipped a little bit because I did have a little bit more focus in trying to set myself up,” Kelce said. “And opportunities came up where I was excited to venture into a new world of acting and being an entertainer. I don’t say this as ‘I shouldn’t have done it.’ I’m just saying that my work ethic is such that I have so much pride in how I do things that I never want the product to tail off, and I feel like these past two years haven’t been to my standard. I just have such a motivation to show up this year for my guys.”

And the motivation for 2025 is clear: “Win a Super Bowl is the only goal. It’s the only goal. It’s every goal.”

He still had 93 catches in 2023 and 97 in 2024. However, after seven straight 1,000-yard seasons, he fell short of the mark each year. And the eight total touchdowns in two seasons combined fall short of the single-season production in 2022 (12), 2021 (nine), and 2020 (11).

While the word “retire” or “retirement” doesn’t appear anywhere in the lengthy article, it continues to feel likely that Kelce would have walked away if the Chiefs had completed the first ever Super Bowl three-peat. Given the way he discussed his future in the aftermath of the game, it felt like he still could.

Now, he seems to be fully focused and all in for what would be a fourth Super Bowl title before moving on to a next phase, which is already more lucrative than his playing career.

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