Jason Kelce lifts the lid on brother Travis’s retirement choice after Chiefs suffered playoff elimination blow
Jason Kelce offered some words of wisdom to his younger brother Travis as he grapples with the decision to retire from the NFL.
Travis and the Kansas City Chiefs’ season officially came to an end on Sunday when a 16-13 defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers eliminated them from playoff contention.
The Chiefs are in unchartered territory. Having recently made it to three straight Super Bowls, and winning a second consecutive championship in 2024, Kansas City will not be involved in an NFL postseason for the first time since 2014 after falling to 6-8.
And the disastrous end to the season has raised questions over veteran Travis’s future in the NFL.
Jason, who faced a similar dilemma when he brought his 13-season career with the Philadelphia Eagles to a close at the end of the 2023 season, weighed in on his brother’s upcoming decision.
The former center, who has turned to broadcasting in his own retirement, opened up on what the tight end could be going through on ESPN’s Monday Night Football.
Jason Kelce weighed in on his brother Travis’s looming retirement decision on ESPN
The tight end and the Chiefs were officially eliminated from the playoffs with Sunday’s defeat
‘In my opinion, to nail that decision, you gotta step away from the game for a little bit,’ Jason said ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ clash against the Miami Dolphins.
‘Play these last three games, enjoy them with your teammates, enjoy them with your coaches… And then let it sink in. It’ll come to you with time.
‘There are so many emotions with this game right after a season, especially with the way this one’s been… Right now, it’s just too fresh. You’ve gotta step away from it, you’ve gotta think about it and then it’ll come to you.’
Jason’s ESPN colleague Ryan Clark suggested there could be another factor in Travis’s decision: Patrick Mahomes.
The Chiefs quarterback will not be returning to the field for the remaining three games of the campaign after tearing the ACL in his left knee in the dying minutes of Sunday’s loss.
‘I just want to say this; it would feel extremely odd if somebody other than Patrick Mahomes throws Travis Kelce his last pass,’ Clark added.
Travis, who is set to marry fiancee Taylor Swift next year, considered retiring after the Chiefs came up short in their bid for a famous ‘three-peat’ in last season’s Super Bowl, where they were destroyed by the victorious Philadelphia Eagles.
Instead of walking away, the legendary tight end vowed not to let that thrashing in New Orleans by his final act in the NFL. But 10 months on he finds himself in an even grimmer position.
But he is determined to right the wrongs of their playoff nightmare after Sunday’s loss to LA
Kansas City must already turn their attention to the 2026 campaign, something they have not had to do before the end of the regular season since 2014 and never at all in Patrick Mahomes’ eight-year reign as starting quarterback.
Yet according to a source close to the 36-year-old, Sunday’s season-ending defeat to the Chargers has convinced him to forget about retirement and play on for at least one more year.
‘For the Chiefs, Travis and Patrick [Mahomes], it is Super Bowlor bust, and they are now living in their bust era,’ the insider said. ‘With Patrick getting injured, the team not going to the playoffs this year and the struggles Travis has had this season, what was once something Travis was thinking about is starting to change.
‘[Kelce] was heavily considering retirement, and that was when he had other expectations for this season. But how it has all turned out, he doesn’t want to go out this way.
‘The next few weeks are going to be what they are going to be, but Travis is now heavily considering going through the offseason with the same mindset in training and to do at least one more season. Give it one last run.
‘He wants to have one more ride with Patrick, wants to end it on his terms and not the nightmare that this season has turned out to be.’
