Travis Kelce on His Upcoming Season, Post-NFL Ambitions, and Life with Taylor Swift

Talking about Swift, Kelce brings up the question of his legacy. Early in his career, he says, he was motivated by the stats and records that would be attached to his name but, “nowadays, I just want to be respected and loved by the people that I’m surrounded by in my work. I want to leave it better than where it was when I started. And I see her having those same values.”

While Kelce does not discuss the timing or terms of his NFL exit, he says he has been thinking about what his life looks like when he’s done playing. He’s now in the last year of his contract, but, unlike many who have been in his position, he does not necessarily need to take a team-friendly deal or grind it out in a new city. He has built his own media enterprise, one that benefits from the fascination with his relationship with Swift but is in no way dependent on it. Whatever he does next, he will begin from the starting point of, roughly speaking, the largest pop cultural platform in modern American history. What will it be?

Kelce describes a process not of relentlessly upward ambition, but of a curious searching, an improvisational trial and error similar to how he mastered route running. “I know to stay away from a few things that I dabbled in early,” he says. There are still a couple years on the New Heights agreement. He’s got an investment in some Missouri car washes, family businesses that invest in their local communities. “The whole ‘teaming up’ aspect is something that I’ll always kind of desire,” he says. He’s enjoyed acting, and finds developing his on-camera skills satisfying. “I don’t necessarily know if I’ll take it and run with it when I’m done playing,” he says, “but I know that I want to stay around the football world as a profession and then dabble in other areas as well.” When he looks around at his fellow former players, he admires people like ESPN’s Pat McAfee, who are “making it fun.”

“I think there is a happy medium,” he says. Kelce seems to be looking for the pieces of a life that will satisfy his abundant passion and drive but also allow him to remain being the happiest guy in the fucking world all the time. The secret, he thinks, is balance. “I do want to have free time. I do want to have the ability to be around my family. I don’t want to get too busy to where I’m traveling all over the world and I’m not present at home.”

A lot of players take years to figure this out after they’ve hung it up, if they ever do. Kelce is way ahead. Quietly wise. Consider it yet another Travis Moment: What he’s experienced of fame and influence so far, he explains, just makes him appreciate where he comes from all the more. “There is an easier and a better way of life,” he says. “A more fun way to live.”

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