Travis Kelce Says This Interesting Factor Weighed Heavily in Retirement Decision

Before the Chiefs report to St. Joseph, Mo., for training camp in July, Netflix fans will see Travis Kelce alongside Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore 2.

Before that, they’ll continue to hear him weekly on New Heights with his brother, still see him on FX’s Grotesquerie and watch him hosting Amazon Prime’s Are You Smarter than a Celebrity.

Becoming even more of a celebrity, and the additional money with it, was the primary sacrifice Kelce made to return for his 13th NFL season. The future Hall of Fame tight end, who may share a puppy with Taylor Swift, alluded to that simple math on this week’s New Heights, officially confirming his commitment to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

“Why are you playing another season?" his brother Jason prompted early in the podcast. "Why are you going to go out there, risk injury, and make less money than you could make not playing football?”

“That was kind of the one I had to juggle right there," Kelce admitted.

Kelce wants to finish his career on a better note than the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LIX loss. But he’s playing this year for the love of the game – at least compared to his earnings potential off the field.

As much money as he could make for endorsements, royalties, appearances and roles, he still has only 24 hours in a day. And once camp arrives in July, most of those 24 hours will go toward film, workouts, practices, meetings and games.

Kelce is due a $12.5 million roster bonus next week and once the season begins, the Chiefs will pay him $4.5 million in salary.

“I think the biggest thing is that I ****ing love playing the game of football,” Kelce told his brother on New Heights. “I love playing, I still feel like I could play it at a high level, and possibly at a higher level than I did last year.

“I don't think it was my best outing, you know? I think I let my guys down in a lot more moments than I helped them, especially if you look at my track record and how I've been in years past. … I want to give it a good run. I got a bad taste in my mouth on how I ended the year and, and how well I was playing how accountable I was for the people around me.”

Those people around him, at least for the next year or so, will be Mahomes, Andy Reid, Rashee Rice, Trent McDuffie, Chris Jones, Trey Smith, Creed Humphrey and Xavier Worthy.

Chad Stahelski, Jason Spitz, Alex Young, Tim Dowling and Loose Cannons can wait.

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