Even at 34, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ tight finish Travis Kelce stays one of many league’s premier gamers.
As discussions about his life after soccer achieve momentum — fueled by the bodily beating he’s taken on the sector and his budding endeavors off of it — his retirement appears to be an increasing number of possible. However as he enters his twelfth NFL season, Kelce isn’t targeted on that.
“I actually can’t put a timeframe on it,” Kelce of his potential retirement on Tuesday. “I really like coming to work each single day. Clearly, I do know there are alternatives outdoors of soccer for me, however I feel you’ve bought to maintain in perspective that I’m nonetheless a little bit child after I come into this constructing.
“I do know I’m 34 years previous — about to be 35 — however I’ve a love to do that proper right here in the course of the warmth and in June. I really like coming to work each single day and doing this. So I’m going to do it till the wheels fall off — and hopefully that doesn’t occur anytime quickly.
“I can undoubtedly perceive that it’s [closer to] the tip of the street than it’s the starting of it. I’ve simply bought to ensure I’m arrange for after soccer as nicely.”
Discuss his potential retirement can also be fueled by final season’s dip in efficiency. Whereas his manufacturing was nonetheless among the many league’s finest at his place, it didn’t meet his personal requirements. His 65.6 yards per recreation represented his lowest output since 2015 — and his 984 complete receiving yards ended his streak of consecutive 1,000-yard seasons at seven.
Throughout the offseason, Kelce allowed himself to mirror and recharge from final season’s grind. Whereas this allowed him to discover his alternatives outdoors of the NFL, it doesn’t change who he’s.
“I’m a soccer participant,” he declared. “I really like taking part in within the NFL. It will all the time be my essential focus. Outdoors of that, soccer ends for everyone. So dipping your toes within the water and seeing what you want in several areas and completely different profession fields, I feel offseason is the perfect probability you may get to try to discover that — and set your self up for after soccer.”
Accidents and the bodily toll of the NFL have additionally performed a component in Kelce’s decline. As typical, although, he chooses to brush it apart.
“Put on and tear me, child!” he exclaimed. “I’m prepared for it, man. Put the load on me. I really like being accountable for the women and men on this constructing and Chiefs Kingdom. I really like the facet of all people relying on me to try to make that play for the workforce — and simply do the appropriate issues on the market on the sector.”
Nor does Kelce purchase into the concept that the best way final season performed out labored towards him,
“I don’t assume that something from final yr put extra miles on me or made me much less of a participant. I feel it was simply focus, being my very own worst critic, and capitalizing on conditions that I ought to have.”
Kelce’s essential objective stays the identical as everybody else within the group: successful a 3rd straight Tremendous Bowl. The veteran tight finish is aware of three-peating received’t be straightforward — and the workforce’s finest probability to do it’s to interrupt it down into smaller, extra attainable objectives.
This implies Kansas Metropolis might discover itself on a path just like the one it adopted in 2023.
“I feel all people’s fairly motivated to maintain the mentality that we had final yr,” revealed the tight finish. “We didn’t get to back-to-back [championships] by all the time speaking back-to-back. We bought there by attempting to determine, ‘What’s the easiest way to get higher from final week and yesterday?
“I feel that mentality is vital in one thing like this. You may’t get too far down the street. Clearly, there’s a objective set. However there’s a bunch of them which are set earlier than that — like attempting to win the division, attempting to get first place within the AFC. These sorts of issues are extra attainable proper now than serious about the three-peat on the finish of the yr.”
