Shortly after 10.30am on Thursday, Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs stepped off their team bus and on to the grass of the Sao Paulo Athletic Club. They wandered past the rugby posts and the beach volleyball courts and the swimming pool, until they reached a field that had been freshly painted for football.
Andy Reid’s team had been mobbed at the airport a few hours before arriving here, a self-styled ‘oasis’ in the south of Brazil’s financial heartbeat, to step up their preparations for Friday night’s season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers.
After a brief workout, Kelce took a seat inside the creaking clubhouse. ‘SPAC’ offers a slice of England in Sao Paulo. The roots of this place stretch back to the 19th century railway workers who arrived from Britain and brought sports with them.
So it makes for a fitting base. The Chiefs are here to help spread football to foreign lands and this side room was rammed by the time Kelce took his place alongside quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The walls around them were plastered with pictures of England – its landscape, its country mansions and its monarchs. There were several portraits of the late Queen Elizabeth alongside her husband, Prince Philip.
And, for all the talk of football and globalization, it didn’t take long to address the sizeable elephants in the room: Kelce’s own royal wedding with Taylor Swift and his reign as football’s figurehead. The tight end, who turns 36 next month, has one year remaining on his current Chiefs deal. Many expect this to be his 13th and final season in the NFL. His last dance.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce recently announced their engagement after a secret proposal
The Chiefs star pondered leaving the NFL after suffering humiliation at Super Bowl LIX
But the 35-year-old is with the Chiefs in Brazil for the start of what could be his last NFL season
Kelce and his teammates go through their final practice at Sao Paulo Athletic Club on Thursday
‘It’s the last one on the contract right now but I’ll tell you what: I’m feeling young and I’ll feeling ready to rock,’ Kelce said with a smile on Thursday.
‘Ever since I’ve been dating Taylor life has been fun. It’s been exciting. Obviously, a lot more eyes – and I accept that – but I’m living life, living on a high.’
Or as Mahomes put it: ‘Living the dream, dude.’
Kelce was asked how life had changed in the two years since he began dating the pop superstar. ‘I got one more ring from it,’ he joked.
After a whirlwind romance, the couple got engaged last week. And on Friday night, Kelce will begin his mission for yet more jewelry: a fourth Super Bowl ring.
For a time, it wasn’t clear if he would make it to Brazil’s concrete jungle. Following Super Bowl LIX, Kelce hinted that he could walk away. That the grind of more than a decade in the NFL had begun to take its toll and perhaps the time had come for a new chapter with Swift.
It had been a punishing season – Kelce’s worst by many metrics – and then the Chiefs were humiliated by the Philadelphia Eagles. The tight end endured a miserable evening in New Orleans and fears grew that football had passed him by. ‘I failed,’ he admitted.
A few weeks later, however, Kelce announced that retirement would wait: ‘I can’t go out like that,’ he said. So here we are in Sao Paulo.
‘It’s hard when you get towards the end of your career,’ Kelce’s older brother Jason tells the Daily Mail. The former Eagles star waved a tearful goodbye to football in 2024.
Brothers Travis (left) and Jason (right) Kelce were teammates for the Cincinnati Bearcats
Kelce has gone on to become a three-time Super Bowl champion and a legendary tight end
‘You have to do so many things, from a physical standpoint, to be at your best… [but] you just have to enjoy all those things and know that – even though it’s a grind and it’s wearing on you – eventually it’s all going to be over.’
Travis has already dipped his toe into TV and film but the Chiefs star isn’t sure his future lies in acting. He hopes to stay around football while ‘dabbling’ elsewhere. His father, Ed, recently told the Daily Mail that Travis has ‘all the tools and charisma’ to emulate Jason, now an ESPN pundit. But Kelce is only certain about one thing: he can’t be too busy to see his family.
For now, he and Jason co-host a podcast, New Heights, which is reportedly worth $100million. Their recent episode with Swift broke several records and, for Kelce, it has long paid to have his big brother by his side.
They were teammates at the University of Cincinnati where in 2010 Travis was kicked off the team over a failed drugs test, only for Jason to drag him back on course. ‘I owe it all to him, I really do,’ Kelce has said.
Now, before this final chapter, Jason has more important advice. ‘Just enjoy the moment,’ he says. ‘Try not to look too far down the line and try not to let all these things… take the joy out of what the game brings you.’
The NFL caravan has chugged its way to Brazil for a second consecutive season and in football’s bid to burrow deeper into this soccer-obsessed country, no one will do more heavy lifting than the Chiefs tight end.
He was already the sport’s biggest name and one half of the world’s most famous couple. Now, after proposing to Swift, Kelce has reached another stratosphere.
‘It borders on the surreal,’ his father recently told the Daily Mail about the family’s meteoric rise. To think that during his early days at college, Kelce spent much of his spare time playing Mario Kart and serenading his teammates.
Travis and his brother Jason shared a bedroom after the younger Kelce was kicked off the team
Travis and Jason are pictured with their father Ed (left) and mother Donna (right)
‘At midnight, he’d be singing “O Holy Night” or “Frosty the Snowman”,’ his friend and ex-teammate Danny Milligan recalls. During a trip to Memphis in 2011, the tight end took part in a singing challenge against a player from Vanderbilt. ‘I think he ended up winning,’ Milligan says. ‘So dating Taylor Swift… maybe it makes sense. Maybe she’s grooming him [for a duet].’
The following year, though, Kelce’s academic major was still listed as ‘Exploratory Studies.’ It is a program designed for those yet to decide their next step. And so, heading into his final season, Kelce was still wondering what classes to take. He was still mastering a new position. As for where he would end up? That was anyone’s guess.
Kelce arrived in Cincinnati as a quarterback before being shifted to tight end. He struggled to make his mark and then missed the entire 2010 season after testing positive for marijuana. It was Jason who brokered his return from exile. Then it was up to assistant coach David Johnson to turn Kelce into an elite tight end – and keep an eye on him.
‘He had to communicate with me… he would let me know what he was doing and where he was,’ Johnson tells the Daily Mail. ‘To make sure he didn’t stay out too late or do anything that wasn’t going to be good for him and for his future.’
There’s no risk of Kelce drifting out of sight anytime soon. The 35-year-old’s every move and every misstep is plastered across social media. There are few internet sleuths more diligent than Swifties. That is the price – or the privilege – of dating a pop icon and winning three Super Bowls.
Kelce’s charm and talent were obvious at Cincinnati but it wasn’t until 2012, his fifth and final year, that Kelce carved out a future for himself in football. As Johnson puts it: ‘He started to separate himself from the other guys.’
Heading into this closing chapter in Kansas City, Kelce has no such concerns. He is among the greatest tight ends of all time and a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame. ‘He’s built a great legacy,’ coach Andy Reid said recently. Instead, this year, success hinges only on one thing. ‘A Super Bowl,’ Kelce told GQ. ‘It’s the only goal. It’s every goal.’
Earlier this summer, Kelce went Instagram official with Swift after two years together
The Kansas City Chiefs legend shared a number of loved-up photos with his now-fiancee
And so, Kelce has gone back to the future.
This offseason, he rekindled his relationship with Tony Villani, the trainer who worked with the tight end during his early years in the NFL. Their focus this time round? Rediscovering some of Kelce’s speed and agility.
Kelce has slimmed down. ‘Look how loose that shirt is,’ Mahomes joked on Thursday. And he has trimmed fat off his calendar.
Last year, Kelce barely gave himself a moment to breathe. He followed Swift on her ‘Eras Tour’ and took jobs on the big and small screen – presenting ‘Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity,’ appearing in ‘Grotesquerie’ and shooting his cameo in ‘Happy Gilmore 2.’
He later admitted that his focus wavered and he paid the price. A year on, Kelce has kept it far more low key. In fact, many of his offseason ‘adventures’ remained a secret until the NFL star went ‘Instagram official’ with his now-fiancée a few weeks ago.
Swift isn’t expected in Sao Paulo this week but, shortly before getting down one knee, Kelce explained the importance of being with someone ‘in the same shoe… who understands the scrutiny, the ups and downs of being in front of millions.’
Back in July, Kelce posted photos of the couple ice-skating and out with friends – away from any cameras apart from their own.
The first test of this new regime comes on Friday night. ‘Hopefully, he has a magical season to end a magical career,’ Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said.
Fans swarmed the arrivals hall to greet the Chiefs’ arrival in Brazil on Wednesday but there was no welcome party when Kelce turned up to Cincinnati in the summer of 2008.
‘We were the nobodies on campus,’ Milligan – an ex-wide receiver – says. Both freshmen had roots in Cleveland and, before long, they were with each other ‘all day, all night.’ Often doing battle on video games like Call of Duty or Mario Kart.
Kelce was an elite trash-talker back then. But it also became obvious that he was ‘raised right’. Milligan took Kelce back home for Thanksgiving and to his little brother’s football games. ‘That’s where the true colors of Travis always came out,’ he says. ‘He was willing to sit down, shake hands with people and talk football, talk life.’
Kelce has admitted that he lived like a degenerate in his college days at Cincinnati University
One former Bearcats teammate has described how Kelce was a ‘goofball’ while at college
Kelce was never shy to let his ‘goofy’ side show, either. One Cincinnati staffer has told the story of a traditional fundraiser for breast cancer that included a player fashion show. Kelce went off-script and stripped down to his underwear. They did away with the catwalk after that.
These days, his every dinner date makes headline news. But in Cincinnati, Kelce had rather less swanky taste. Among his favorite haunts? Cincy Steak and Lemonade, and Uncle Woody’s, where he and Jason would play darts in a back corner.
‘I really can’t say that we did too many crazy things,’ Milligan says. Apart from the time Kelce pushed the boundaries enough to get kicked off the team.
He had flirted with trouble before reaching college – skipping classes, flunking others and even getting kicked out of school. This time, though, Kelce thought: ‘Football is over.’
So he began to make alternative career plans. Kelce took a job at a call center, selling Obamacare, and joined a baseball league. But then Jason stepped in. He devised a plan to persuade the Bearcats to give Travis another chance. Among his suggestions? They would sleep in the same bedroom. ‘He was my lifeline,’ Kelce said later.
The coaches relented – on certain conditions. Kelce could not miss a class or let his GPA slip below 3.0. He had to let Johnson know his whereabouts. He had to switch from quarterback to tight end. And for an hour a week, he had to ‘sit down with a shrink.’
Kelce moved in with Jason and several other teammates. It proved a strange place to seek redemption. ‘Those guys were absolute pigs,’ the homeowner previously told The Athletic. The front door was broken and the garbage can resided in the living room, overflowing with pizza boxes. ‘You would want to throw up if you walked in,’ one housemate said.
Kelce, now 35, arrived at Cincinnati as a quarterback before being shifted to tight end
During his final college season, in 2012, he became one of the country’s finest tight ends
The brothers shared the ‘nastiest room’ and Travis was tasked with paying utility bills. He forgot, of course, and for several nights the house was plunged into darkness.
Despite all the beer and the squalor, however, that house did teach Kelce about accountability. Thanks to Jason’s brand of brotherly love.
The story goes that, one day, Travis was caught smoking another joint. He ran away and barricaded himself in their bedroom and then their bathroom. Jason threw the trash can lid at his brother before punching a hole in the wall. Eventually, the message got through.
‘He definitely changed,’ Milligan says. ‘He definitely listened to his big brother a little more. He took advice and realized how scary a moment that was.’
On the field, Kelce needed to learn quickly, too. His football dreams rested on his ability to master tight end and that meant going back to the basics. ‘He probably went through a little dark moment,’ Milligan admits.
But Kelce and Johnson would stay after practice for one-on-one sessions and, again, Jason played his part. ‘Seeing the success of his brother at that time was very critical,’ Johnson says. They are very competitive. ‘And they get after each other.’ By then, Jason had joined the Eagles but he would return to Cincinnati every now and then.
Come the 2012 season, Travis had morphed from outcast to the Bearcats’ ‘heart and soul’. He had matured into one of the country’s leading tight ends.
At one point, then-Cincinnati coach Butch Jones hired a group of military figures to examine his players. They were put through drills to test their decision making under duress.
As Jones later told the Kansas City Star, the verdict was unanimous: ‘You’re not going to believe it,’ the assessors said. ‘But, by far, the leader of your football team is Travis Kelce.’
That wasn’t news to the locker room. ‘He was one of the guys that people would listen to,’ Milligan recalls. And after his 2010 suspension, a conviction hardened inside Kelce. ‘He really held on to that belief that he could right the ship if it was heading in the wrong direction,’ Milligan adds.
Kelce, pictured in 2013, had to wait nearly two years before starting his first NFL game
It did. Shortly before his breakout season, Kelce violated team rules once more. Again, he was suspended, again Jason pleaded with the Bearcats not to abandon him. ‘I’m forever in debt to this guy for putting his name, our name, [and] his honor on the line to get me another chance,’ Kelce has said.
Cincinnati listened and so did the Chiefs. Some NFL scouts reportedly questioned Kelce’s character ahead of the 2013 NFL draft. Then 23, the tight end wept as he pleaded with the Browns for an opportunity to represent his hometown. It fell on deaf ears. But Reid sought the counsel of Jason and then took a punt on Kelce with the 63rd overall pick. Over the next decade, he became a cornerstone of football’s latest dynasty.
Again, he had to bide his time. Kelce waited nearly 18 months before starting an NFL game. ‘Honestly, he was like any other guy that passes through,’ legendary Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson tells the Daily Mail. ‘A lot of guys have a lot of potential… he was just another guy.’
Eventually, however, Kelce’s talent and character began to show. ‘He has far exceeded anyone’s expectations of him – by any coach, by everybody,’ Johnson says.
Now the numbers speak for themselves. Only four players have played more games for Kansas City than the 35-year-old. No one in history has more postseason receptions.
But over recent months, Kelce has found himself back in familiar territory: pondering a future without football, battling to prove his doubters wrong, searching for redemption. Just like in 2010, Kelce knows another stumble could signal the end.
At least this time, pizza boxes aren’t strewn around his living room. Kelce can lick his wounds in a far nicer setting. But the lessons of his suspension have never left him.
Milligan believes it made Kelce close ranks. ‘I’m in the same boat as him – you don’t need a lot of friends to feel loved. You just need the right friends,’ he says.
They haven’t hung out in a couple of years. But they still share many of the same buddies. ‘And I see the same people always at the Chiefs games,’ Milligan says. It runs in the family – Jason had a tight group of friends, too. And they both keep family close.
‘They understood how important a good circle is and how to trust the right people,’ Milligan adds.
Kelce is pictured alongside Swift during their offseason ‘adventures’ since the Super Bowl
Swift and Kelce set the internet ablaze when the Chiefs tight end got down on one knee
Now, no one could accuse Kelce of forgetting his roots.
It’s one of the contradictions at the heart of this story. Kelce arrived in Brazil as one of the most recognizable people on the planet. And yet all roads lead back to Cincinnati.
His brother remains his ‘best friend’ and his parents remain his biggest fans. His career is managed by two Cleveland natives – Andre and Aaron Eanes. His podcast is named after his hometown, Cleveland Heights. His bodyguard – Demetrius Richardson – is an ex-teammate at Cincinnati and his gameday suite is full of familiar faces.
‘For him to have those friends, still to this day, he’s obviously doing something right,’ Milligan says. ‘He’s living his best life. And it’s not just because of the money or the fame. He’s been that way since day one. He’s always willing to welcome his friends and family into that love of life.’
In truth, contrasts follow Kelce everywhere. ‘He’s always had those two different personalities,’ Milligan says. He has always been a ‘goofball’ who is happy to play the fool. On Thursday, he began his press conference with a brutal impersonation of Mahomes. Now, though, Kelce is also ‘way more strategic’ about the image he portrays – ‘[I don’t] want anyone to say anything negative about me,’ he admitted recently.
Kelce relishes being ‘the happiest guy in the world all the f***ing time’. But then the game starts, a switch flicks and – as he puts it – the ‘a**hole’ side comes out.
Before long, those two Travis Kelces will wander down the aisle and down another career path. First, though, he has business to finish, starting in the cauldron of Sao Paulo on Friday night.
