One day after announcing girlfriend Taylor Swift was coming on his podcast, Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce learned how some of his peers perceive him.
Travis Kelce Learns What NFL Players Really Think of Him After Taylor Swift News originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and his brother, retired Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro center Jason Kelce, broke the internet on Monday when they teased a special guest on a the next episode of their “New Heights” podcast, which fans quickly unearthed was Travis’ girlfriend Taylor Swift.
The official “New Heights” social media pages then dropped an even bigger tease by posting a video later Monday night of Swift unveiling her new album “The Life of a Showgirl” live on the show, which drops Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET.
Social media was buzzing again on Tuesday morning in anticipation of Swift’s appearance on the Kelce’s podcast, but Travis was hit with some personal non-Swift news on Tuesday afternoon when the NFL announced he came in at No. 37 on the league’s Top 100 players of 2025 — a ranking of the best players in the league as voted on by the players.
Twenty-four hours after promoting his uber famous girlfriend and her next career venture, Kelce found out what his fellow players really thought of him when the league posted a video of some of Kelce’s highlights, complete with commentary from some other tight ends.
NFL Top 100 Players of 2025:@Chiefs TE Travis Kelce joins the list at No. 37! @NFLFilmspic.twitter.com/mPSOkQkMyl
— NFL (@NFL) August 12, 2025
“As a tight end, his football IQ is off the charts,” Bills tight end Dawson Knox said. “Travis has been so incredible for so long. He just has a knack for finding the soft spot in the zone. He knows what a defense is going to do before they do it. And when you have that type of intelligence in football, it’s pretty hard to cover someone.
“Watching Travis, like, talk about football is one of the most unique experiences ever,” San Francisco 49ers TE George Kittle said. “It doesn’t matter who’s covering him, it doesn’t matter what coverage you’re in, he just finds a way to get open. And like the relationship and the chemistry him and Mahomes have, I don’t think there’s anything else like it in the NFL.”
Added Arizona Cardinals TE Trey McBride: “I think he doesn’t just catch the ball and just runs, he catches the ball and takes a picture of what the defense is giving him, and then can react off of that.”
Kelce revealed at the end of February that he was coming back for his 13th NFL season after taking a few weeks post-Super Bowl to decide whether or not he wanted to retire.
The 35-year-old Pro Bowler has been locked in during training camp over the last few weeks, and he admitted in an exclusive interview with GQ magazine on Tuesday that being fully focused heading into the season is an issue he’s struggled with recently.
“I think [my production] might have slipped a little bit because I did have a little bit more focus in trying to set myself up [after football],” Kelce told GQ. “And opportunities came up where I was excited to venture into a new world of acting and being an entertainer.
“I don’t say this as ‘I shouldn’t have done it,’ I’m just saying that my work ethic is such that I have so much pride in how I do things that I never want the product to tail off, and I feel like these past two years haven’t been to my standard.”
Related: Jason Kelce Responds to Fan’s Claim Wife Kylie Hates Travis Kelce, Rest of Family
Related: Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift Wedding Speculation Fueled by Chiefs HC Andy Reid
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 13, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: Football