Travis Kelce is expected to break down his decision to keep on playing in the NFL on Wednesday in the latest New Heights episode, in a rare in-person episode filmed with his older brother Jason.
There was genuine belief that Kelce, 35, would call it a day after the emphatic loss in the Super Bowl in New Orleans in February, where the Philadelphia Eagles beat his Kansas City Chiefs 40-22, leaving their three-peat hopes in ruins.
After agonizing over the decision to play, Kelce confirmed last week that he wasn’t prepared to bring the curtain down on a glittering career after such a heavy loss. But Wednesday’s episode is his first opportunity to speak at length about the decision.
He appeared rejuvenated and back to his usual light-hearted mood in a 30-second clip shared by the New Heights social media accounts on Tuesday night.
Asked by brother Jason if his own retirement from the Eagles last year inspired him to play on, Travis laughed and said: ‘No, I actually think you’ve handled it perfectly, Jason.
‘You’ve thrived, outside of missing a Super Bowl. I think you absolutely killed it, dude.’
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Travis and Jason Kelce have recorded their latest New Heights episode together
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Kelce looked refreshed and back to his old self in the 30-second teaser clip on Tuesday
Jason laughed off his brother’s remark before calling him ‘a f***ing d***’.
‘Yeah well, that’s the only way I can have fun with it,’ Travis replied, referencing the Super Bowl loss once again.
His brother Jason played for the Eagles for 13 years, winning the Super Bowl once. He retired last summer, with the team then going on to lift the Lomabrdi trophy in their first campaign without him.
Back in New Orleans in February, Kelce stopped short of addressing his future in the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl, saying only in the locker room: ‘Hats off to the Eagles, man. We couldn’t get it going offensively.
‘We just couldn’t find that spark, couldn’t find that momentum. I think there was a lot of things going wrong.
‘Everything was not really going our way today. You don’t lose like that without everything going bad. We haven’t played that bad all year.’
Kelce was very coy over his future in the New Heights episode that came out days after the Super Bowl loss – if anything, he sounded like a man on the way out.
‘I know everybody wants to know whether or not I’m playing next year, and right now I’m just kicking everything down the road. I’m kicking every can I can down the road,’ he said.
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Kelce’s career looked to be over when the Kansas City Chiefs lost the Super Bowl in February
‘I’m gonna take some time to figure it out,’ he continued. ‘And I think I owe it to my teammates that if I do come back that it’s gonna be a wholehearted decision and I’m not half-a**ing it, and I’m fully here for them.
‘I think I can play, it’s just whether or not I’m motivated or it’s the best decision for me as a man, as a human, as a person to take on all that responsibility.’
Judging by the short clip on Tuesday night, Kelce looked refreshed and back to his old self.
It was unclear where the brothers filmed the show but it looked like they had a new studio to record in, with vinyl records placed in the background.
They rarely are able to record episodes together, especially during the NFL season with Travis based in Kansas City and Jason in Philadelphia.