Background and career
Travis Michael Kelce ( KEL-see; born October 5, 1989) is an American professional football tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 NFL draft and later won Super Bowls LIV, LVII, and LVIII with the team. He played college football for the Cincinnati Bearcats. He is considered one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history.
Kelce is an 11-time Pro Bowler and a seven-time All-Pro, with four first-team and three second-team selections. He holds the NFL records for most consecutive and most overall seasons with 1,000 receiving yards by a tight end: seven. He holds the record for most receiving yards by a tight end in a single season with 1,416 in 2020, despite playing in only 15 games.
During the 2022 season, Kelce became the fifth NFL tight end to reach 10,000 career receiving yards and reached the milestone faster than any tight end in NFL history. Kelce was named to the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team. During the 2023 season, he surpassed Jerry Rice in career playoff receptions en route to winning Super Bowl LVIII, his fourth Super Bowl appearance in five seasons. Kelce ranks second to Tony Gonzalez in career receiving yards by a tight end.
Outside of football, Kelce is a co-owner of beer brand Garage Beer. In addition he has appeared in advertisements and on reality and scripted television, including being the namesake of the dating show Catching Kelce (2016) on E! and hosting a 2023 episode of Saturday Night Live. He co-hosts a podcast, New Heights, with his brother Jason in which they cover topics from football to popular culture. The show was ranked as the 8th most popular podcast in the United States on Apple Podcasts in 2024.
Travis Michael Kelce was born on October 5, 1989, in Westlake, Ohio. He is the younger son of Ed Kelce, a former sales representative in the steel industry, and Donna Kelce (née Blalock), a former bank executive. His older brother is Jason Kelce, who played center for the Philadelphia Eagles for 13 seasons. The brothers are of partial Croatian descent through their mother, whose ancestors were from Brod Moravice and Velike Drage in the Gorski Kotar region, near the Slovenian border, with their maternal great-grandmother Marie Stajduhar acknowledged to have been born to Croatian immigrants. Their other maternal great-grandmother, Helen Henrietta Sadlowski, was born to Polish immigrants, while a maternal great-grandfather named Frank Petranek was born to Czech immigrants.
How Travis Kelce makes money
On June 6, 2013, the Chiefs signed Kelce to a four-year, $3.12 million rookie contract that also included a signing bonus of $703,304. 2016 season On January 29, 2016, Kelce signed a five-year, $46 million contract extension.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth, in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
