Travis Kelce Admits His Play Slipped & Reveals His Plan to Bounce Back

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce recently appeared in a movie in which rapper Eminem stops by as the son of a deceased, Sizzler-worshipping heckler known for hollering, “Jackass!”

Say what you will about “Happy Gilmore 2,” but let’s agree the above snapshot more than borders on lavish.

Kelce concurred in an interview with GQ, admitting his production in 2023 and 2024 “might have slipped a little bit” as he strengthened his pop culture foothold.

“I don’t say this as ‘I shouldn’t have done it,’” Kelce said. “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’s kicking his proverbial Ma-Auto into higher gear during training camp.

Kelce figures to play a few series Friday as the Chiefs visit the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2 of the preseason — long enough for broadcasters to reference his singing girlfriend, Taylor Swift, and perhaps weigh in on Kelce’s “Gilmore” cameo.

That pomp naturally will follow Kelce into the season and beyond, but as he pivots from the prospects of retirement — remember the chatter following Kansas City’s Super Bowl LIX loss to Philadelphia — Kelce wants folks to channel his catches, yards and touchdowns again.

Ideally into February.

“Win a Super Bowl is the only goal,” Kelce told GQ. “It’s the only goal. It’s every goal.”

It’s one he knows he can accomplish while remaining devoted to Swift, an ardent pigskin talker and listener, as her beau observes.

“She is the most engulfed fan now,” Kelce said. “She knows what the injury reports look like. She understands what special situations are, third and short — all these things because she just naturally loves to hear about my job.”

Even the chatty Kelce might have been mum about his 2024 output. His touchdowns (three) and yards (823) were his lowest since he played one game as a rookie in 2013. Kelce had a 49-yard reception in a divisional playoff victory against Houston, but the longest among his six catches in the two postseason games that followed went for just 13 yards.

While the Chiefs captured their second straight Lombardi Trophy one year earlier, there was one less notable stat to crow about in 2023, as Kelce’s 984 yards stopped a streak of seven straight seasons with 1,000 or more.

After the trip to Seattle, the Chiefs will host Chicago in their preseason finale on Aug. 22 before opening the regular season against the Los Angeles Chargers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, two weeks later.

Los Angeles has been a familiar spot for Kelce of late, as he previously shifted his offseason headquarters there.

A reported return to work with former speed coach Tony Villani in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, doesn’t simply conjure images of Adam Sandler’s “I was wrong, you were right” line to the late Carl Weathers in the original “Gilmore.”

It leaves Kelce hopeful about recapturing the player of seasons past.

“I just have such a motivation to show up this year for my guys,” he said.