Is Travis Kelce retiring at the end of the season? All the hints the Chiefs star has dropped about his NFL future

Travis Kelce’s future has become one of the NFL’s most enduring question marks. Despite the star tight end insisting earlier this year that he wasn’t going anywhere, speculation about his retirement has once again resurfaced.

After the Kansas City Chiefs fell to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, many believed Kelce could walk away following the loss. Instead, the 35-year-old shut down those rumors, confirming he planned to return for another NFL season and continue playing alongside quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Now, however, with the Chiefs eliminated from playoff contention during the current season, speculation surrounding Kelce’s future has reignited — particularly as he navigates his 13th year in the league.

Kelce previously acknowledged how fluid his thinking around retirement can be. Speaking with sports journalist Stephen A Smith in January, he admitted that his feelings “change every single day.”

“I love everything that I’m doing in this building, but at the end of the day I’m not having that extreme success on the field as I have individually,” Kelce said. “... I’ll reevaluate it like I always do, and I’ll probably tell myself how much I love this thing and I’ll come back next year.”

At the time, he also clarified that his fiancée, pop sensation Taylor Swift, had not attempted to deter him from playing in the NFL if that was what he wanted.

“She’s fully encouraging me to enjoy playing this game,” Kelce said. “She loves coming to Arrowhead and coming to the games and cheering for me so I got all the support in the world to keep chasing these dreams.”

Although the tight end has not yet explicitly stated whether or not he is retiring, here are some clues that suggest it might come sooner rather than later...

June 2023 — Kelce acknowledges how much he’ll miss playing football

Speaking at the Chiefs’ 2023 minicamp, Kelce reflected on how fortunate he felt to be playing football in his thirties.

“I love this game,” he said. “I know I’m going to miss it when I’m done playing… I get to play a game for a living at the age of 33, 34 and I think that’s something — you know, I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want to lose that excitement that I had for a game when I was a kid.”

November 2023 — Injuries lead to retirement thoughts

During an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Kelce suggested that the only thing that would pull him off the field would be the injuries he’s sustained over the years.

“That’s the only thing I’ve never really been open about,” the tight end said. “The discomfort. The pain. The lingering injuries — the 10 surgeries I’ve had that I still feel every single surgery to this day.”

June 2024 — Travis’s brother Jason shares retirement advice

The tight end’s older brother, Jason, retired after playing 13 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles last year. He suggested that the run-up to the June 2024 training camp would force his younger brother to confront how much football he has left.

“This is when you’re going to start knowing, whenever this time comes, and you need to walk away,” Jason said during an episode of their New Heights podcast. “[It’s] the fighting your body, like, you used to be able to do something you can’t do anymore. That’s when it’s like you’re fighting that, to continue to get that back. That’s when it starts to become hard. Bottom line is everyone knows when it’s time for them.”

Later that month, Travis acknowledged during a press conference that his career was more “toward the end of the road than the beginning of it,” but he wanted to make sure he had another career lined up before retiring.

December 2024 — His last game in Ohio?

In a December 2024 episode of New Heights, Travis said that he likely played his last game in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. “I just love that city, man. It was so fun,” he said, following the Chiefs’ game against the Cleveland Browns.

Jason and Travis grew up and went to college in nearby Cleveland Heights before their NFL careers.

“I don’t know if it’s the last time I’ll ever play in Cleveland, but it kinda felt like I was just giving it one last hurrah before I’m done because I’ve only played there twice in 12 years,” he told his older brother at the time.

January 2025 — Jason questions how many games Travis has left

On January 25, during an episode of They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce, the older Kelce brother discussed his desire to attend both the Eagles game at 3 p.m. ET in Philadelphia and the Chiefs game in Kansas City at 6:30 p.m.

“I’m kinda torn. I wanna be there for the Eagles, I also wanna be there for my brother, I don’t know how many more he has,” he said on the show. “So we’re kind of flying by the seat of our pants. We might be able to see both of us here again, hopefully.”

February 2025 — Travis reflects on Super Bowl Loss

During a Super Bowl recap episode of New Heights, Travis expressed how frustrated he was with his personal performance and the role he played in the 40-22 loss.

At the time, he explained how he “couldn't find a lick of momentum” when playing at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.

“I'm kicking myself for some of the tiny, tiny decisions I made on the field. I wasn't the best leader that I could be in motivating my guys and keeping my guys calm, cool, collected,” he said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow. It’s a hard reality, man. I love my teammates, I love my coaches. Chiefs Kingdom, I’m sorry for how it ended.”

March 2025 — Travis reveals Super Bowl loss put off retirement

After sending a text to The Pat McAfee Show, confirming he would be playing again, Travis explained his decision in an episode of New Heights.

“The biggest thing is that I f***ing love playing the game of football. I love playing,” the tight end told Jason. “I still think I can play it at a high level, and possibly at a higher level than I did last year.”

Travis also admitted he wasn’t comfortable with the 2025 Super Bowl being his last game. “It was probably the biggest factor [in putting off retirement],” he said of the championship match, which he then described as an “all-time low.”

“I don’t think it was my best outing. 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,” Travis continued. “I got a bad taste in my mouth for how I ended the year and how well I was playing and how accountable I was for the people around me.”

December 2025 — Travis expresses frustrations over lackluster season

Toward the second half of the regular NFL season, the tight end dropped a crucial pass during the fourth quarter of the Chiefs’ game against the Houston Texans. He later lamented that the season was not going as well as he had planned during an episode of New Heights.

“You put in all this f***ing work and hope that it pays off. And right now, it’s just for whatever f***ing reason, man, it’s little things,” he said.

“I feel like I’ve always had the answers in years past. And this year, I just can’t find them. I keep thinking if I show up to work and I put in the work and I fix the issues through my practice habits and through perfecting the game plan and my fundamentals and what I'm being taught and go out there and try and play my ass off for my guys next to me, it’s all going to come together like it has in years past. And this year is just not, man.”

The NFL regular season ends in early January, after which the playoffs begin.