Chiefs’ Kelce says he plans on playing in 2024

Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff WriterJan 11, 2024, 03:53 PM ET
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- Covered Chiefs for 20 seasons for Kansas City Star
- Joined ESPN in 2013

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Saying, “I have no reason to stop playing football,” Travis Kelce indicated Thursday that he intends to play in 2024 for the Chiefs.

“I love [playing with the Chiefs],” Kelce said. “We still have success, come in with the right mindset, and I just love the challenge that it gives me every single day to try and be at my best.

“I have no desire to stop anytime soon.”

Kelce, who turned 34 in October, said that he has given retirement some thought but that he was never serious enough about it to contemplate what he might do if he weren’t playing for the Chiefs.

“I’ve been fortunate to do a few things outside of the sports world that I’ve been enjoying doing, like getting on camera,” Kelce said. “The [‘Saturday Night Live’] stuff kind of opened up a new happiness and maybe a new career path for me.

“But it’s funny for me to even say that at this point in my career. I think it’s so much further down the road than it is right now.”

Kelce had his streak of seven straight 1,000-yard seasons, a record for a tight end, snapped this season when he finished 16 yards short. He could have played in last weekend’s final regular-season game against the Chargers, but opted instead to join Patrick Mahomes, Isiah Pacheco and others in taking the week off.

The Chiefs had clinched the AFC West championship and the conference’s third playoff seed the previous week.

“I just didn’t care enough about [1,000 yards],” Kelce said. “I felt like I could get some rest and let the guys go out there and just play the game instead of worrying about getting this old guy 16 yards. Just never felt right.”

It was a different kind of season for the Chiefs, who, at 11-6, lost more games than in any other season since 2017. Instead of having a prolific passing attack and a high-scoring offense, the Chiefs finished 15th in scoring and were carried in large part not by Mahomes and Kelce but by their defense.

Kelce called this season “a different journey” but one he enjoyed.

“It’s a new challenge to find ways to get open,” Kelce said. “It’s a new challenge to find ways to get wins. I think I went up to [defensive end Charles] Omenihu after one game or during one game and said, ‘Man, we’ve just got to become a team that just grinds these games out.’

“I think you’re always trying to challenge yourself to get back to that success because those are the expectations you set for yourself. So it’s not just accepting it, it’s still trying to get to those goals, but at the same time understand situational football towards the end of the games and be there when your team needs you the most.”

Meanwhile, coach Andy Reid, who turns 66 in March, said he hadn’t thought about whether he would retire at the end of the season.

“I figured that would come up … because I’m old,” Reid said. “But I’m not that old.”