Did Cowboys Not Draft Travis Kelce Because He 'Smoked Weed'?
It was anything but a love story and both sides eventually said no.
The eyes of the football-loving nation turned to Indianapolis last week thanks to the return of the NFL Scouting Combine, the world's most public job interview. One of the most time-honored traditions of the Combine amidst the drills and workouts is the players' individual get-togethers with their potential future employers. Those conversations, of course, are staged behind closed doors but often wind up leaking sooner or later once the subject enjoys his professional breakout.
Denny Medley, USA TODAY SPORTS
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was among the latest to recall his Indianapolis shakedowns, as he went through the process in 2013. The future Taylor Swift beau and former Cincinnati Bearcat found his conversation with the Dallas Cowboys to be anything but the best day: Kelce claimed that Pokes representatives grilled him about his 2010 full-season suspension for testing positive for marijuana prior to the Bearcats' Sugar Bowl appearance in the preceding season.
"The Cowboys, they were kind of pressing me about having this red flag of missing a year, smoking weed," Kelce recalled on "New Heights," the podcast he shares with his brother Jason. "I don't know if I was having a bad morning ... I don't know even know if I want to say this: it ended really fast."
At the time, Dallas was searching for depth behind All-Pro tight end Jason Witten and called in Kelce for a conversation after he earned first-team All-Big East honors during the Bearcats' 10-win season. Apparently, however, Kelce was trouble when he walked in and both sides agreed that collaboration was out of the question.
"I basically just said if you guys think I'm going to be that kind of guy or you're questioning if I'm still that person after everything that I've battled through to get to where I'm am now from missing a season, then you guys probably go somewhere else and pick somebody else," Kelce said. "That's exactly what they did."
Dallas used its second round pick on San Diego State's Gavin Escobar, who amassed 333 yards and eight scores in four starred seasons. Escobar was the third tight end taken in 2013 after Tyler Eifert (Cincinnati) and Zach Ertz (Philadelphia).
Sixteen choices later, the Chiefs opened the third round with a call to Kelce and it's safe to say that he has rendered his drug suspension has been long forgotten.
Sadly, Escobar passed away in 2022 in a rock-climbing accident. He was working as a firefighter in California and was just 31 years old.
Kelce's decorated career, set to reach 12 seasons come September, has yielded nine Pro Bowl invites, three Super Bowl rings, and numerous NFL records and landmarks. In 2022, for example, Kelce joined Witten as one of only five tight ends to earn at least 10,000 receiving yards in his NFL career, an exclusive brotherhood that also features Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, and Shannon Sharpe.
