Kelce's last dance? Why Chiefs star could retire from NFL

Travis Kelce already has a good idea how tough a decision it is for an NFL player to retire.

Almost two years ago he watched his older brother Jason go through the process.

Travis was sat in the front row of his retirement news conference, wiping away tears as a 36-year-old Jason announced he was ending his 13-year career with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Now Travis is 36 and set to face a similar dilemma as he approaches the end of his 13th year.

After winning three Super Bowls in the past six years with the Kansas City Chiefs, his contract expires at the end of the season.

Having failed to reach the play-offs for the first time in 11 years, the Chiefs' kingdom is finally crumbling.

With Kelce also expected to marry his fiancee Taylor Swift next summer, is now the time for one of the NFL's greatest tight ends to call it a day?

Travis Kelce has considered retirement before, after the Philadelphia Eagles prevented Kansas City winning a third straight Super Bowl last season.

He took time to see "whether I'm motivated or it's the best decision for me" to return for the final year of his contract and "take on all of that responsibility".

A month after making his fifth Super Bowl appearance in February, Kelce confirmed he would continue.

But the Chiefs have since looked a shadow of their former selves, being eliminated from play-off contention with three games of the regular season remaining.

Kelce's future is one of the question marks hanging over Kansas City as they prepare to rebuild, and his brother Jason was asked during his media work with ESPN whether he had any advice.

"You've got to step away from the game for a little bit," said the 2018 Super Bowl winner with the Eagles. "Play these three games, enjoy them, and then let it sink in. It'll come to you with time."

The first of those games at Tennessee on Sunday, though, was not very enjoyable. After Patrick Mahomes suffered a season-ending injury the week before, his back-up Gardner Minshew also got injured, so the Chiefs ended the game with third-string quarterback Chris Oladokun.

The Titans won 26-9 for their third victory this season and Kelce had just one reception for six yards as Kansas City slipped to a 6-9 record. Even if they win their final two games, it will be Andy Reid's worst record in 13 seasons as their head coach.

After last season's comprehensive Super Bowl defeat by the Eagles, Kelce apparently texted sports analyst Pat McAfee, external saying, "I can't go out like that".

Surely this is not how Kelce wanted it to end either.

His on-field connection with Mahomes was pivotal to the Chiefs establishing an NFL dynasty, and now the quarterback, 30, will not be out there for what could be Kelce's final games.

On Christmas Day, the Chiefs host a Denver Broncos team looking to secure the AFC's top seed for the play-offs. Then they visit Las Vegas to face a Raiders team which could finish the season with the NFL's worst record.

However, Allegiant Stadium is where Kelce ended a whirlwind 2023 season in which he began dating pop star Swift. Their relationship catapulted his profile to a whole new level and Swifties followed the singer's race against time to get from Tokyo to Vegas to see her new lover win a third Super Bowl.

Speaking earlier this year about whether he might announce a retirement decision before the end of the season, so that he could have a 'farewell tour', Kelce said: "That's not me."

He added he would decide on his future before the start of free agency on 11 March, giving the Chiefs time to prepare for the 2026 season.

Kelce has already been preparing for life after football.

In 2016 he starred in his own reality TV dating series and he and Jason launched a podcast called New Heights in 2022.

At the end of that season, they became the first brothers to play each other in a Super Bowl and appeared on the Saturday Night Live comedy show.

Since then, Travis has worked as a game show host, an actor and an executive producer.

In a GQ cover story this summer,, external Kelce said his football "might have slipped a little bit because I did have a little bit more focus in trying to set myself up".

While Jason is now a TV analyst, it is unlikely Travis will follow that well-trodden path from the field to the commentary booth.

If he retires and gets married next year, there will be plenty of other opportunities waiting for him in film and television, and perhaps he and his new wife will start a family.

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In that GQ interview, Kelce said the 2023 and 2024 seasons "haven't been to my standard".

Statistically, his production did decline in each of those years.

There has been a slight uptick this season and he remains the team's leading receiver, but Kelce has registered just one reception in two of the past three games.

Kelce knows Kansas City are in transition and even if Mahomes - who has torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee - can play at the start of next season, he is unlikely to be fully fit and there is no guarantee they will make an immediate return to the play-offs.

If Kelce commits to another year, he may not be able to help the Chiefs get back to the mountain top, but he would have the opportunity to set their new-look roster on the right path.

He gave nothing away before the loss to the Titans, telling reporters: "I'd rather keep the focus on this team right now."

But the way Kelce mixed with fans in Tennessee, he had the air of a man who was saying goodbye.

He now has the chance to bid a festive farewell on home soil at Arrowhead, the scene of most of his greatest triumphs.