Travis Kelce Had A Lot Of Growing Up To Do When He First Joined The Chiefs

Travis Kelce is one of the best tight ends in the NFL — not just this year as the Kansas City Chiefs won back-to-back Super Bowls, but of all time. However, he's had a bit of a bumpy ride getting there. It started with Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid having some doubts about signing Travis to the team in light of some of the trouble he'd gotten into in the past. In a touching moment, it was Travis' big brother Jason Kelce who vouched for him and may have had a hand in getting his brother his NFL start.

Here's what happened to get Travis his big break: In 2013 on NFL Draft Day, Travis got a call from Reid, and he told Fox Sports that the conversation didn't start all that smoothly: "He's questioning me like, 'Are you gonna [expletive] this up?' I'm trying to give him every answer I can give, like 'I'm gonna work hard and be the best tight end you've ever had,' this and that." 

Reid then asked to talk to Jason, who at that time had been playing center for the Philadelphia Eagles for two years — before he was hired in Kansas City, Reid was the Eagles head coach, and he first drafted Jason. Whatever it was that Jason said to Reid about his little brother must have helped seal the deal, as Travis has been with the Chiefs since that call.

Once Travis Kelce started with the Kansas City Chiefs, Coach Andy Reid kept an eye on him. Jason Avant, who played for both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs during his NFL career, told Daily Star, on behalf of Action Network, that he was asked to be a kind of mentor for the newly drafted tight end: "I remember when coach Andy Reid took me there to help Kelce develop into a professional because he had a lot of immaturities coming out of college. He had a lot of issues and it was my job to help."

Whatever it was that Avant, and others, did seems to have worked — Kelce's played for the Chiefs since he was drafted, and he's become one of the best players around. Avant acknowledged how Travis differed from others he'd seen in similar situations. "They have to have the ability to want to do it," he said. "I told a bunch of other guys but they went down the wrong path instead ... some guys see it, you just have to convince them that they have talent and they can have a better future."

The incident that worried Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid when he first drafted Travis Kelce and asked Jason Avant to look out for him goes back to Travis' college days. Travis got booted from his college team as a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati after he failed a drug test after smoking weed. He talked about it on the podcast "Bussin' With The Boys," saying "I'd partied a little too much" in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl.

His big brother Jason Kelce came through in that situation as well to help convince the coaches to let him back on the team, saying he'd help keep him focused. Kerry Coombs, the team's secondary coach and special teams coordinator told The Kansas City Star how Jason helped get Travis back on track. "This was a crossroads for Travis, and I've seen it go both ways," he said. "But he wasn't a bad guy. He was a very likable guy, in fact. I knew he had gold inside of him; you just had to knock off some dirt."

Travis has talked about how much he appreciates the support he got from coaching staff like Coombs to allow him to get back on the team. It also led him to focus on his position as a tight end; previously, he'd also played quarterback.

As far as Travis Kelce may have come since he first joined the Kansas City Chiefs, he may still have some issues to work out. At the 2024 Super Bowl, Travis was pictured angrily yelling at Reid on the sidelines, and in the process, bumping into him and knocking him off balance. 

On the first "New Heights" podcast after the Super Bowl, Jason called out his brother over the incident, saying, "You crossed the line." Travis agreed, saying: "I can't get that fired up to the point where I'm bumping coach and it's getting him off balance and stuff. When he stumbled, I was just like, 'Oh s—' in my head."  Travis explained that keeping his emotions under control had been a career-long journey, and something he was still working on: "I wasn't playing very well [...] sometimes those emotions get away from me."

In his post-game interview with ESPN, Reid confirmed Travis apologized to him over the incident. Reid seems to have accepted that apology, and he talked about knowing where Travis was coming from: "He wants to be on the field and he wants to play. There's nobody I get better than I get him. He's a competitive kid, he loves to play, and he makes me feel young." When next year's season comes around, we'll see if Travis has emotions locked down.