Travis Kelce Recalls Getting Emotional in Pre-Draft Meeting With Bewildered Browns

The Chiefs tight end badly wanted to play for his hometown team.

Travis Kelce forged a surefire Hall of Fame career with the Chiefs, but the Browns were his first love. / Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is nothing if not a vocal appreciator of Cleveland sports—having pulled for the Guardians and Cavaliers in various public arenas for years.

However, Kelce also grew up rooting for the Browns, and fans in the Forest City have been left to wonder for years what might've happened if the future Hall of Famer played for his hometown team. On Tuesday, he revealed just how badly he wanted to do that.

As he recounted to Sean Manning of GQ, Kelce met with then-Cleveland coach Rob Chudzinski before the 2013 draft. To Chudzinski's great shock, Kelce brought himself to tears discussing his desire to play for the Browns.

“I cried in [Chudzinski's] office and said, ‘I will f---ing die for this city!’” Kelce tells me. “I literally was in tears. I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m getting emotional. I grew up down the street. I would f---ing do anything to play for the Cleveland Browns.’ He looked at me like I was insane. I don’t think he’d ever had somebody just pour out their emotions.”

Chudzinski, himself an Ohio native, lasted just one 4-12 season with Cleveland. The Browns have made just two playoff appearances over the arc of Kelce's career; Kelce has played the same number of playoff games in his career that Cleveland has since 1964.

---

More NFL on Sports Illustrated

feed