Travis Kelce Shares How He Handles Pressure in the Spotlight

Travis Kelce can do it with a busy schedule.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end—who will debut as host of Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? starting Oct. 16 on Prime Video—has taken on a few new projects outside of football since his team won the Super Bowl in February, and he's very much aware of the added scrutiny that put on his football performance.

"It's not necessarily pressure," Travis exclusively told E! News host Keltie Knight Oct. 8. "I'm my own worst critic and I definitely, I definitely take that into account."

The 35-year-old boyfriend of Taylor Swift pointed out that, because the Chiefs won the last game of the NFL season, he and his teammates had a shorter off-season than their competitors and thus had to use their time even more wisely.

As Travis explained, "Understanding how much time I had, how much rest I needed, I've gotten a pretty good gauge over the past ten years [of] being in the NFL, that I understand what I need to do to get ready for the season." (For more from Travis, tune into E! News Oct. 9, at 11 p.m.)

The NFL star, who made his acting debut earlier this month in Ryan Murphy's Grotesquerie series, added that he's confident in his ability to take on outside projects while also prioritizing his focus on the field.

"I was fortunate enough to get presented a lot of opportunities after this Super Bowl," Travis shared, "and I really, really thought about it, talked to everybody on my team and my family and friends and what I think I would have the most fun with, on top of still being able to get my job done, which is football."

Despite whatever else is going on in his life personally and professionally, ultimately the former University of Cincinnati football player maintained that he's still putting in the work to make sure that he's performing to the best of his abilities.

"At the end of the day, I'm still a football player," Travis stressed. "I'm still coming into work and chasing these championships and living this dream that I've had my entire life."

As he noted, "Football is always first, but it is fun to dabble into the entertainment world like I have these past couple off seasons."

Travis' comments come as he's faced criticism over his "slow start" to the NFL season, despite his team's 5-0 record. His older brother, Jason Kelce, recently came to his defense amid the backlash from Chiefs fans.

"Optics are that he is all over the place," he said on ESPN's Monday Night Countdown Oct. 7. "Football has always been the most important thing in Trav's life."

The former Philadelphia Eagles player called attention to the fact that Travis has always taken on new opportunities outside of football during the off-season—and that the added attention he's gotten from his love life didn't change that.

"He has always lived his life to the fullest," the 36-year-old continued. "He has enjoyed his off-seasons very much even before Taylor Swift and everything else that was going on in our lives."

Jason also echoed his brother's sentiment, adding that "he is always going to find a way to make football the number one priority."

"I know it's been a slow start for him," Jason said. "Trav is always gonna find a way to show up and show out. It's only a matter of time before he gets back."

Keep reading for everything to know about Travis.

1. Travis Kelce may be inextricably linked to Kansas City, Mo., for life, but he grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

And the man represents, shouting out his hometown instead of his alma mater, University of Cincinnati, during game broadcasts that include player introductions.

Which, as you might guess, has irked some fellow alums. 

"It’s not because I don’t appreciate the time I had at the University of Cincinnati, because I do, I cherish it dearly," Travis said in 2019 when he and big brother Jason Kelce were inducted into the Cleveland Heights High School Hall of Fame. "But there was a time when I was at Cincinnati that it wasn't easy for me. It was tough. I got my scholarship taken from me. I did a lot of dumb things. I'm sure a lot of people in this room know someone from Heights that's done a lot of dumb things. To all my friends, I was that guy."

And the Heights weren't just special to him, he continued, but "to every single person up here. How diverse this place is. It builds something in me. Every single thing I do is for this city. It sounds cliche, but I promise you, every single thing I do out there — when you see me dancing in the end zone, that’s Cleveland Heights, for you, right there."

2. About that revoked scholarship...

After the Bearcats' undefeated 2009 season that included a Big East title, Travis failed a marijuana test ahead of the 2010 Sugar Bowl after partying too hard on New Year's Eve in New Orleans.

Not only did he miss the bowl game, the NCAA suspended him for the 2010 season and he lost his scholarship. Finding himself without room and board, he moved in with Jason (literally into his brother's room in the house he shared with some teammates) and took a job as a telemarketer that entailed him asking anyone who picked up if they had thoughts about the Affordable Care Act.

They did, and Travis could not wait to get back on the field.

3. Travis played hockey, baseball and basketball before getting into football, and he was a quarterback in high school. In fact, he was a two-star QB recruit for Cincinnati, and only ended up switching to tight end as a condition of his reinstatement to the team after his suspension.

"We had an awesome quarterback at the time in Zach Collaros and we needed some help in the run game as well as the passing game," Travis told Arrowhead Pride after he was drafted by the Chiefs in 2013, "so I talked to coach Butch Jones, who was my coach at the time, and he said we need a tight end and my skill-set, athleticism and my direction all transferred over and it worked out perfect for me."

Or, as he put it to GQ in 2017 while rehashing his un-shining moment, "Everybody my entire life had been telling me I was a tight end anyway."

4. The house at 127 W. Nixon St. where Travis bunked with Jason and some fellow Bearcats was the scene of a lot of beer-infused shenanigans.

The brothers "used to love playing Nintendo 64 for hours, smashing the controls and chugging beers at the same time," college friend and teammate Tom DeTemple told the New York Times before the 2024 Super Bowl. "They would just come up with these random drinking games while playing, and they were incredibly good at it." 

5. And suffice it to say, Travis is extremely proud of being a Bearcat.

"It's all about Cincinnati, baby," he told reporters before the 2023 Super Bowl, which the Chiefs got to by beating the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game. "I've always been extremely prideful of coming from the University of Cincinnati. I finally got my diploma. I try to help out as much as I can. I go back to the university when I can. I just miss being around all those players that I played with, and all the people I met along the way there that have always been in my corner throughout the ups and downs of life."

And when he was down in the eyes of the NCAA, he continued, "The players, the coaches, the staff that was at the university at the time—really believed in me to be able to turn things around and do better for myself. That was huge for me at the time."

6. Almost a decade after leaving college to enter the draft, Travis earned his degree in interdisciplinary studies in 2022—but didn't pick up his diploma until April 2024 during a surprise commencement ceremony after he and Jason taped a live episode of New Heights at Cincinnati's Fifth Third Arena.

The graduate was already holding a can of beer as he approached the dean for his congratulatory handshake, after which he promptly chugged it.

And Travis was going to graduate in 2022 but he missed his flight.

7. Largely due to his off-the-field issue, Travis ended up only the fifth tight end picked in the 2013 NFL Draft, going first in the third round to the Chiefs. After which coach Andy Reid, who'd previously coached Jason in Philadelphia, asked the elder Kelce sibling to vouch for Travis.

Andy and Travis have three Super Bowl rings to show for Jason's endorsement.

8. His hype music may have changed since, but for years Travis listened to Randy Newman's "Burn On" before every game.

"I'm an east side of Cleveland kid so growing up, I don't know why, but this song brings me back to thinking about family and thinking about where I am in life and how much I appreciate it," he said on the NBC Sports podcast PFT Live in 2017.

Let us explain: It's in the opening credits of Major League, the ultimate Cleveland sports movie.

9. Everyone, including Travis, is mispronouncing his last name.

While he and Jason have just gone with Kelce sounding like "Kel-see," it actually rhymes with "else."

Travis' teammate Chris Jones fired off that bombshell on Inside the NFL in January—"F--king crazy, right?"—and the brothers confirmed as much when they confronted their dad Ed Kelce about it on their New Heights podcast.

"Why in the world did you change your name out of nowhere and now we are Kel-see?" Jason asked. "Why did we think that our name was Kel-see for the first 24 years... 27 years of my life, 25 of Trav's?"

Ed admitted he "got tired of correcting people" but urged his son to "do whatever you want."

10. The No. 87 Travis has worn throughout his time in the NFL is a tribute to Jason, who was born in 1987.

"If there is a Kelce legacy, two brothers making it to the NFL, it all started in 1987, because this big guy was born in 1987," Travis explained to NFL Films ahead of the 2023 Super Bowl featuring his Chiefs squaring off against Jason's Philadelphia Eagles.

11. Travis' foundation 87 and Running has been a longtime benefactor of Operation Breakthrough, a nonprofit learning center in Kansas City that the athlete has worked with since his first visit in 2015 to read The Cat in the Hat to the kids.

Yes, reader, he wore the hat.

Since then, Travis has invested in the program's Smart Lab and bought the former muffler shop next door so they could expand and create their Ignition Lab, where the young scholars converted old cars that could've ended up on the scrap heap into working electric vehicles.

12. Travis and Jason call their New Heights listeners "92 percenters" in reference to Jason once commenting that a play known as a quarterback sneak worked "92 percent of the time" when all you need is one yard to score a touchdown.

Fans were apparently quite tickled and basically christened themselves the "92 percenters," according to the podcast's website, which likened it to "their secret handshake, but in words."

Who were the Kelce brothers to argue with that?

13. Travis has three personal trainers—Alex Skacel, Andrew Spruill and Laurence Justin Ng—and, according to The Athletic, one usually travels with him wherever he goes to ensure he remains in football-catching shape all year round.

Alex, who's also a physical therapist, recalled Travis wanting to go for a late night run after taking in a slate full of shows during Paris Fashion Week because he missed working out that day.

"It's midnight, and we're doing sprints over the bridges over the river," the trainer told the New York Times in April. "No matter where he is, he finds time to get done whatever he needs to get done."

14. Travis' personal chef, Kumar Ferguson, has been a friend since the fourth grade in Cleveland Heights. 

He was an amateur cook working as a truck driver in 2016 when Travis called him up and offered him the opportunity.

"He's like, 'Hey man, I want to take my diet seriously, and take it to the next level,'" Kumar told Vanity Fair in 2023. "I'm like, s--t, let's do it. Three or four days later, I was in Kansas City."

He's been responsible for everything from stocking Travis' fridge to delivering well-balanced lunches to the Chiefs' training facility.

15. Travis' facial hair is under the microscope more than ever now, so he explained on New Heights that he shaved his off-season beard and kept the 'stache in 2023 as an homage to the walrus look favored by Andy Reid and decided to repeat in 2024.

16. The $34.25 million two-year contract Travis signed in April 2024 made him the highest-paid tight end in the NFL for the first time in his career.

Which finally put an end to years of chatter about how much money he wasn't making.

"My managers and agents love to tell me how underpaid I am," Travis quipped to Vanity Fair in 2023. "Any time I talk about wanting more money, they're just like, 'Why don't you go to the Chiefs and ask them?'"

But by then, with many other sources of income having opened up for him, he cared more about the vibes than the paycheck.

"I'm like, the free market looks like fun until you go somewhere and you don’t win," he explained. "I love winning. I love the situation I'm in."

Seeing other players' huge paydays "hits you in the gut a little bit," he admitted. "It makes you think you’re being taken advantage of. I don't know if I really pressed the gas if I would get what I’m quote-unquote worth. But I know I enjoy coming to that building every single day."

17. Travis has been into clothes since growing up in Cleveland Heights, where his high school "was like a fashion show every day," he told Vanity Fair in 2023.

Hence the bedroom he converted into a closet, the better to house his designer threads and more than 300 pairs of sneakers—including a pair of size-13 Nike Air Mags that he spent a sizable portion of his rookie year salary on despite them being a size too small.

"Earlier on in my career, when they didn't have all these sneaker apps," he explained to the Wall Street Journal, "it was whatever size I could get in the shoe that I wanted."

While he's very much a Nike guy (and not just because the brand sponsors him), Chuck Taylors also hold a space in his heart because they remind him of fictional baseball phenom Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez in The Sandlot.

18. Among his dozens of investments, Travis co-owns Ohio-brewed Garage Beer with Jason.

"I think everyone knows I like to have a couple beers now and then," Travis said in a June statement, "so being an owner of Garage Beer and heavily involved in making the best light beer is exciting, man! There is nothing better to bring people together than an ice-cold beer, and for Jason and me that is what beer is all about—friends, family and fun."

19. We're sensing a theme when it comes to Travis' guilty pleasure TV choices.

Back in the day, it was Gossip Girl: "I mean, it's awesome," he said on New Heights. "It like a New York high school show with a lot of drama and basically everybody gossiping and talking s--t on each other."

His new favorite show? Peacock's Emmy-winning backstab-a-ganza The Traitors.

20. In his 12th year in the NFL at 35, Travis has been more open of late about the toll the game takes on the body.

But he's been stoically getting hammered since day one, when he missed his rookie year with a microfracture in his knee that required the first of the 10 surgeries he's had in his career.

21. Travis put it out there, talking on New Heights about his thwarted attempt to give Taylor Swift a friendship bracelet with his number on it when the Eras Tour touched down in Kansas City.

And after hearing through the grapevine (people in her camp who knew who Travis was and that he wanted to meet her), she contacted him.

"She told me exactly what was going on," he told WSJ. Magazine, "and how I got lucky enough to get her to reach out to me." 

22. One of Travis' favorite desserts since forever is French toast topped with whipped cream and syrups.

But more recently he's become a fan of his girlfriend's homemade Pop-Tarts and cinnamon rolls.

23. At least one of Travis' ringtones is Chris Farley shrieking "For the love of God!" in Tommy Boy.

"I told Taylor that I have that world, I've got to introduce it to her," he told WSJ. The Magazine of sharing his affinity for the comedy stylings of Farley, Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell with his girlfriend. "I let her know: This is my jam right here."

24. After screaming "You've got to fight for your right to party!" after their AFC Championship win over the Bengals in 2019, Travis inspired the Chiefs to start playing the Beastie Boys song of the same name following every home game touchdown at Arrowhead Stadium.

"It's like an energy multiplier. That's hard to quantify just how important that is," Chiefs general manager Brett Veach told ESPN in 2020. "He plays with that kind of character, charisma, passion, and he brings people along with him. In our building, everybody is friends with Travis Kelce. He is an ultimate energy giver. He elevates everybody's mood, focus, attention and at the end of the day, he's still fun."

But the boisterous celebrant who brought it into their lives admittedly didn't know all the words to the 1986 classic until he was tasked with performing it with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in February 2023.

25. Speaking of his jams, in May 2024 Travis cited his three favorite Taylor songs as "Blank Space," "The Alchemy" and "So High School."

Asked about it in September, however, his answer had changed to, "They're all my favorite—literally every single one."

26. Comparisons to the Chiefs' legendary tight end Tony Gonzalez, who retired in 2013 after 17 seasons in the league, started early for Travis.

In 2015, when the chatter about whether he would, in fact, surpass Tony's achievements—and how disappointing it would be if he didn't—was heating up, Travis said he paid the noise no mind.

 "Nobody puts bigger expectations on me than myself," he told Complex. "I want to have the greatest season statistically that a tight end has ever had."

On Sept. 29, Travis surpassed Tony to become the Chiefs' all-time leader in receptions with his 917th catch.

"It's crazy how things always come full circle," Travis said on New Heights. "Being at the top of the leaderboard with the Kansas City Chiefs who have been around since the '60s, one of the beginning organizations that made it all the way through that are still at their peak. And a lot of that is due to the rich history they have and to a guy like Tony Gonzalez, who has been a mentor to me. I f--king love the guy."

27. Of Travis' many accomplishments, keeping his house in order on his own isn't one of them.

"He can't clean," mom Donna Kelce told Extra in September. "He can't cook.”

But perhaps hosting a special someone when she's in town has served as extra motivation to get it together.

"He's getting a little better," Donna acknowledged. "I think he's getting some help."