I don’t know if Travis Kelce will retire from the NFL in the days ahead, but I tend to think he won’t.
But if he does, I’ll be ready. Why? Because as was the case with his brother a year ago, Travis Kelce hanging up his cleats would be a sports media story just as much as it would be an NFL one.
As I wrote in my preview of the NFL’s biggest offseason storylines, Kelce could become the most sought-after sports media free agent in recent memory. Sports Illustrated‘s Jimmy Traina took it a step further, proclaiming the future Hall of Fame tight end as potentially the “biggest sports media free agent ever.”
I don’t think that’s crazy. If Jason commanded a reported three-year, $24 million deal from ESPN, then imagine what his more famous and — let’s be honest, more traditionally telegenic — younger brother might fetch on the open market. If Travis Kelce decides to do television, he can name his price. But a part of me also wonders if we’re getting way ahead of ourselves here.
While I expect Kelce to maintain some presence in the NFL media world following his playing career, I think we might be overestimating what that might look like. After all, Travis Kelce isn’t just football famous. He’s famous famous. And people who are famous famous don’t typically spend their Sundays (or Mondays) in the fall covering football.
Of course, there are exceptions, but there’s also a reason why it was (and still is) so shocking that Tom Brady opted to become a broadcaster following his own legendary career. While the sports media world is filled with former athletes, the most famous players typically have ambitions elsewhere. What’s more, we already know that’s the case for Kelce.
Last spring, a New York Times profile of two of the masterminds behind Kelce’s rise to A-list status that coincided with his relationship with Taylor Swift explicitly laid out a plan to make the 10-time Pro Bowl selection “as famous as The Rock.” That would be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, one of the most famous actors (and frankly, people) in the entire world.
Kelce is hardly The Rock at this point, but his IMDB page is already taking shape, including an upcoming role in the highly anticipated Happy Gilmore sequel. And while we don’t even know whether he’ll be keeping his full-time job in Kansas City next fall just yet, all indications appear that he’ll be more drawn to Hollywood than Bristol, Connecticut, whenever he calls it quits on the football field.
That’s not to say he won’t have a place in the NFL media, but it’s hard to imagine him becoming a part of a pre-game show panel or even hosting his own late-night variety show like Jason does for the Worldwide Leader. Maybe I’ll be wrong; I was convinced Brady would never make it to the Fox booth, and he just finished the season calling the Super Bowl. But if I had to set an over-under on Travis Kelce’s presence in the NFL media, I’d set it at a ManningCast-like alt-cast with Jason, only with even fewer games that Peyton and Eli are currently calling.
Add in the empire that’s the Kelce brothers’ New Heights podcast, and it seems like that would be just enough for Travis to maintain his connection to the football world while also having enough time for the bevy of acting and endorsement deals that are inevitably heading his way.
If Kelce truly wants to be The Rock, I’ll take the under on his NFL media presence. Since leaving WWE for Hollywood in 2003, The People’s Champ has been so busy that his connection to pro wrestling has been minimal. Sure, he’ll drop in here and there and even wrestle a match on occasion. And I’d suspect Kelce would do the same when it comes to opining about football, perhaps on an even more consistent (but still limited) basis.
Ultimately, that could be a good thing, as one could argue that we’re already nearing “Peak Kelce” from an overexposure standpoint. Rather than beating us over the head with Travis and Jason each Sunday and/or Monday, why not make it special when Travis helicopters in from Hollywood and blesses us with his analysis and his patented catchphrase: “Alright, nah.”
Like all things in sports and entertainment, Kelce’s place in the sports media landscape will ultimately be determined by the opportunities he’s presented with elsewhere. That equation alone, however, seems telling and could indicate that his next step after retirement won’t be what many of us have long assumed it will be.
