Andy Reid still doesn’t know if Travis Kelce plans to retire or not after telling the Chiefs icon to ‘get out of town and relax’ while he contemplates the decision.
Kelce is currently weighing up retirement following Kansas City’s crushing defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles at Super Bowl LIX earlier this month.
A few days after the 40-22 humbling, the 35-year-old told brother Jason on their New Heights podcast that the ‘wear and tear’ on his body and mind could tempt him to hang up his cleats.
It remains to be seen whether he returns for a 13th season in the NFL later this year, but for now Reid is none the wiser about Kelce’s thought process.
After stressing that he doesn’t know what his star tight end will do, the Chiefs head coach told reporters at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday: ‘That’s up to Travis. At this point, get out of town and relax. That’s my motto for these guys. They played a lot of games for a consistent amount of seasons here.
‘So you get to the end and you’ve exhausted yourself mentally and physically… step back and take care of that, then we’ll talk.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid insists he still doesn’t know if Travis Kelce plans to retire or not
Kelce is weighing up retirement after the Chiefs’ defeat at the Super Bowl earlier this month
‘But for right now, I think that’s what he’s doing.’
Reid also revealed that he held a customary end-of-season discussion with Kelce before he followed his advice and headed off on vacation.
‘He and I will get together,’ the 66-year-old clarified. ‘I had exit meetings with all the guys before they left, so we did have the chance to talk already.’
Kelce’s 12th season in the NFL ended in heartbreak earlier this month as the Chiefs failed to become the first team of the Super Bowl era to win it three years in a row.
With girlfriend Taylor Swift watching on from the stands, he also endured a miserable evening from an individual standpoint after going largely anonymous in the game.
The football veteran had been tipped to retire earlier in the campaign after putting up some of the worst regular-season numbers of his career, and his ineffective display against the Eagles revived that speculation this month.
Travis then told brother Jason on February 12’s edition of New Heights that he is indeed thinking of bowing out.
‘I think I’m gonna take some time to figure it out,’ he said about his retirement decision after the Super Bowl defeat.
Reid opened up on his conversation with the tight end at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis
‘I think I owe it to my teammates that if I do come back, it’s gonna be something that it’s a wholehearted decision and I’m not half-assing it.
‘I’m fully here for them and I think I could play, it’s just whether or not I’m motivated or it’s the best decision for me as a man, as a human, as a person to take on all that responsibility.’
Yet speaking on The Steam Room podcast with Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson last week, Jason suggested his little brother already knows whether he will retire or not.
‘I think he probably, in his heart, already knows what he wants to do,’ Jason shared. ‘That’s the reality of it.’
