Travis Kelce acknowledged his off-the-field pursuits impacted his performance for the Kansas City Chiefs last season.
“I think it might have slipped a little bit because I did have a little bit more focus in trying to set myself up,” Kelce, 35, said in his GQ cover story, which was published on Tuesday, August 12. “And opportunities came up where I was excited to venture into a new world of acting and being an entertainer.”
Kelce made his acting debut on FX’s Grotesquerie last year, playing a hospital orderly named Ed Laclan on the Ryan Murphy–produced series. The football star also hosted the Prime Video game show Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?, which filmed last offseason.
The new professional endeavors coincided with Kelce having career lows in both receiving yards (823) and touchdowns (3) last year.
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“I don’t say this as ‘I shouldn’t have done it,’” Kelce clarified. “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.”
He added, “I just have such a motivation to show up this year for my guys.”
In addition to his sluggish regular season, Kelce had only four catches for 39 yards in the Chiefs’ 40-22 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. Prior to that, Kelce had never caught fewer than six passes in his four previous Super Bowl appearances.
This offseason, Kelce has dedicated himself to getting his body in shape with a one-track mind.
“Win a Super Bowl is the only goal,” he said. “It’s the only goal. It’s every goal.”
Kelce rented a $20 million home in Boca Raton, Florida, this summer — where his girlfriend, Taylor Swift, visited him often — as he prepares to enter his 13th NFL season.
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A major part of Kelce’s training has been guided by Fort Lauderdale–based speed-and-agility coach Tony Villani, who has used speed drills to help recapture some of Kelce’s old form.
“I started to realize that when you got too fast, you couldn’t decelerate,” Villani told GQ. “All Travis is trying to do to the linebacker or safety is make him chase him. Once that linebacker or safety chases him and runs, he’s out of control.”
Villani added, “Travis plays between 12 and 16 miles per hour. That’s it. If he goes past his zone, then he turns into a track athlete and can’t change direction. He caught a pass in the Super Bowl three years ago and he jumped it up to 19 miles an hour, the fastest speed he hit in three years. He’s set every tight end record known to man without ever really being above 19. This is what he’s an artist at.”
Kelce and the Chiefs open the 2025 regular season in Brazil against the Los Angeles Chargers on September 5.
