NEW ORLEANS — This time around, Travis Kelce offered no boisterous bellows.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end had nothing to sing about Sunday night while on the opposite end of the Super Bowl spectrum from a year ago.
Last February, Kelce stood atop the world, smooching Taylor Swift and belting out the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right,” as red and yellow confetti showered his Chiefs following a successful title defense. Kelce had delivered a prolific performance (nine catches for 93 yards) in the 25-22 overtime win versus the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII, and when handed the mic, he didn’t hold back.
Fast forward one year later and Kelce was trudging — not dancing — off the field at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. And this confetti was green — the color of the Philadelphia Eagles, who with a 40-22 throttling of Kelce’s Chiefs garnered the Super Bowl LIX trophy and denied Kansas City’s quest to become the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls.
Having managed just four catches for 39 yards — roughly a third of his 93 yards in Super Bowl LVIII and his lowest postseason output since 2019 — Kelce wanted nothing to do with microphones or spotlights. He opted against going to the podium for a postgame news conference and instead spoke to only a small group of reporters in the visitor locker room before slipping off into the night.
Travis Kelce on the Kansas City Chiefs’s Super Bowl loss:
“We haven’t played that bad all year.” pic.twitter.com/n6N6gzBVwo
— Sam Fortier (@Sam4TR) February 10, 2025
As stunning as the Chiefs’ feeble efforts proved on Sunday, Kelce’s output matched the decline he displayed during the regular season. His 823 receiving yards and three touchdown catches were both career lows. At 35, Kelce has started to show his age, and now the future Hall of Famer enters the offseason with rumors of his potential retirement swirling.
Kelce certainly wasn’t alone in his anemic production Sunday night. Next to nothing went right for Kansas City. And things felt off for both team and star player early in the contest and never got better.
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Throughout their seven-year union, Kelce and quarterback Patrick Mahomes have always played with a connection that seemingly bordered on telepathic. But Sunday night, the usually sure-handed tight end dropped a pass that Mahomes tried to zip to him over the middle. Another target, in the second quarter, skipped off the turf for an incompletion, as did a third-quarter pass for a two-point conversion.
There were times when Kelce found holes in the defense, only for Mahomes to never see him because of frequent breakdowns along the offensive line. For much of the game, the Chiefs had as many first downs (one) as Kelce had catches. A couple of late-game catches minimally improved Kelce’s stat line. And those two late receptions nudged him past Jerry Rice’s Super Bowl record of 31 receptions. But Kelce cared about a win, not a record.
“This one’s going to hurt,” he said during his brief postgame comments.
Asked for his assessment of his team’s struggles, Kelce said: “They just got after us in all three phases, and on top of that, turnovers, penalties, playing behind the sticks on offense, dropped passes, not taking advantage of the play call and executing them. There’s a lot that goes into them. You don’t lose that bad without everything going bad.”
Kelce kept his postgame comments to a minimum perhaps because he suspected questions about his future would come up again. Kelce reportedly entered Super Bowl LIX undecided on his future, and moments after the gutting loss certainly wasn’t the time to make a decision.
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However, Mahomes was asked what he expects from his trusty teammate. The quarterback declined to speculate.
“I’ll let Travis make that decision on his own,” Mahomes said. “Man, he’s given so much to this team, to the NFL, and been such a joy, not only for me to work with, but for people to watch. And so he knows he still has a lot of football left in him. You can see it. He always makes plays in the biggest moments, but it’s if he wants to put in that grind. It takes a grind to go out there and play 20 games, whatever it is, and get to the Super Bowl, and he’s done enough to be a gold jacket guy and first-ballot Hall of Famer.
“I know he shows love for the game, and he’ll get to spend some time with his family and make that decision on his own. But he knows he’ll come back here with welcome arms. We love that guy, not only for the football player, but the person that he is every single day.”
Kelce certainly could walk away from the game and declare he has accomplished everything possible. He’s one of only 14 players in NFL history with more than 1,000 career receptions. His résumé also includes 10 Pro Bowl selections, four All-Pro nods and, of course, three Super Bowl victories in five appearances.
Kelce’s days as a No. 1 pass-catcher are over. Sure, he understands coverages so well that he can float in and out of holes in the secondary to get open for Mahomes. But the separation isn’t what it once was, and with more explosive younger players like Xavier Worthy and Noah Gray ascending for the Chiefs, it’s only natural that Kelce’s role will continue to diminish.
As Mahomes said, Kelce must decide whether he wants to commit to maintaining whatever sliver of a physical edge he has left. Kelce doesn’t need football to make money. If he retired, he would instantly become a sought-after media personality, just like his brother Jason Kelce was last year following his retirement from the Eagles. The tight end could also embrace the freedom of retirement and do more traveling with Taylor Swift.
But it also wouldn’t be surprising if Kelce ultimately decided the taste of this defeat was too strong for him to ignore, and opted to chase one final crack at Super Bowl win No. 4.
Sunday’s final images of Kelce — walking through the green confetti, strolling forlornly through the bowels of the stadium in hopes of avoiding intense scrutiny — contrast greatly from those we have seen during his 12-year legendary career: the rumbles toward first downs, end zones or the rowdy celebrations.
However, Father Time is undefeated and eventually Kelce will succumb. It’s just a matter of how fiercely he wants to continue to fight while the Chiefs’ window of contention remains open.
(Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6125513/2025/02/10/travis-kelce-chiefs-super-bowl-retirement-question/
