Travis Kelce made the decision to stay with the Kansas City Chiefs for the 2026-2027 NFL season, rather than retire. This news was met with excitement from his teammate, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who shared a photo of the two on the football field to his Instagram on March 9th. The image was accompanied by a clock emoji and a bow and arrow emoji, referencing the Chiefs and Arrowhead Stadium.
Patrick's wife, Brittany Mahomes, who shares three children with him - Sterling, 4, Bronze, 3, and Golden, 13 months - also expressed her support by resharing Patrick's post to her Instagram Stories and sharing a video from the NFL confirming Travis' return for his 14th season. She captioned it "He's not done yet."
While Travis himself hasn't commented on the news yet, he had previously shared that he was torn between retiring after 13 seasons or playing another one. "It's a tough way to go out, especially with the amount of success and the standard that you hold," he explained to his brother, Jason Kelce, on their New Heights podcast in January. "I'm just being a regular human for a couple weeks, maybe a month or so, trying to figure out what I'm going to do next in terms of my future in football."
Travis, who is also preparing for his upcoming wedding to fiancée Taylor Swift, added that the idea of retirement is a "tough thing to navigate." "If my body can heal up and rest up and I can feel confident that I can go out there and give it another 18, 20, 21-week run," he continued, "I would do it in a heartbeat."
"I'm just trying to figure it all out myself," Travis said. "And I'll do that with the family and friends." Despite considering the pros of retiring from football, he was also aware of everything he would miss, including the feeling of playing alongside his teammates as they were cheered on by the Chiefs fandom.
"Those moments of rising to the occasion in the heat of battle, in the playoffs and all the big games out there," Travis reminisced on the podcast in March. "That's a feeling that I know I'll never get again."
