Travis Kelce gave ESPN’s Stephen A Smith on Wednesday insight into his girlfriend Taylor Swift’s feeling about his time with the Kansas City Chiefs and potential NFL future

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce continued his recent media tour ahead of his team’s AFC Divisional matchup against the Houston Texans with a stop on the ‘Stephen A Smith Show.’

The 35-year-old opened up about his relationship with pop superstar Taylor Swift, telling the ESPN personality about how supportive his Grammy-winning girlfriend is about his career. Kelce also admitted how Swift feels about his potentially looming retirement with the tight end wrapping up his 12th season in the NFL, suggesting the singer motivates him to keep going.

“She’s fully encouraging me to enjoy playing this game,” Kelce told Smith. “She loves coming to Arrowhead [Stadium] and coming to the games and cheering for me so I got all the support in the world to keep chasing these dreams.”

He added: “I love everything that I’m doing … but at the end of the day, I’m not having that extreme success on the field.“

Kelce didn’t have his strongest season, catching 97 passes for 823 yards and three receiving touchdowns in 2024 (the latter two were the lowest marks of his entire career).

Still, the highly-popular tight end earned enough fan votes to reach his 10th consecutive Pro Bowl. Former Chief Tony Gonzalez holds the record for the most Pro Bowl trips at the position with 14.

Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelce has never lost his bond with Ohio, having growing up in Cleveland Heights
Kelce saw his numbers fall across te board in 2024 ( 
Image:
Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
Kelce revealed he’s been mulling the prospect of retiring, although his playing days appear to be far from over. “I’m excited for these next couple of games to finish this season off,” he said. “I’ll reevaluate it like I always do [and] I’ll probably tell myself how much I love this thing and I’ll come back next year.”

The Chiefs will host the Texans in the AFC Divisional Game on Saturday after earning the conference’s top seed with a sparking 15-2 record.

They will host one of the two best teams in the NFL with the league’s two leading MVP candidates – the Buffalo Bills with quarterback Josh Allen and the Baltimore Ravens with QB Lamar Jackson – in the AFC Championship Game should they win on Saturday.

“[Retiring is] just something that you have to keep into perspective and I never want to get to the point where I’m not helping this team win or I’m hurting this team more than I’m helping this team,” he continued.

Noah Grey emerged as a fellow pass-catching threat out of the Kansas City tight end room in 2024. The former fifth-round pick set career highs across the board, catching 49 passes for 437 yards and five touchdowns.