Is Travis Kelce Retiring? Everything the NFL Star Has Said About His Decision

Has Travis Kelce reached his Endgame?

The tight end began his professional football career in 2013 when he joined the Kansas City Chiefs. He has continued playing with the NFL team in the years since, going on to become a 10-time Pro Bowler and win three Super Bowl championships.

Following Kelce’s latest Super Bowl appearance in 2025 — where the Chiefs lost to the Philadelphia Eagles 22-40 — the Kansas City team had a rather disappointing 2025 season. They were eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in a decade after their loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in mid-December 2025. During an episode of his New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce podcast that aired a few days later, Kelce admitted that things “just didn’t go our way” before the Chiefs lost the game.

During the season, Kelce began teasing that he had a big decision to make regarding the future of his NFL career. In a Prime Video interview that aired on Dec. 25, he spoke to retired football star Tony Gonzalez about whether it was time to step away from the game, saying that he is “still searching for those answers.”

“The way this one ended with a sour taste in my mouth,” the football star said. “I feel motivated, but I got to make the right decision for me.”

So, is Travis Kelce retiring? Here’s everything the football star has said about his decision.

Is Travis Kelce retiring?

Kelce has yet to announce if he will be retiring, though he has gotten candid about what’s been going into the decision-making process.

While speaking with reporters following the team’s final game of the season on Jan. 4, Kelce said he was going to spend some time with the organization, go through exit meetings and “get close to the family and figure things out.”

As for when he’ll make a decision, Kelce said “either it hits me quick or I gotta take some time.”

“I think last year was a little bit easier,” the NFL player continued.

He also told Gonzalez a few weeks earlier that he had several confidants who are helping him make his decision, including his brother, Jason Kelce, who retired from the Philadelphia Eagles in March 2024 after a 13-year career with the team.

“Well obviously I’ve got one guy in my back pocket that called it quits when he was 36 years old, being my brother,” the Kansas City Chiefs star said, going on to ask Gonzalez himself what factored into his own decision.

Gonzalez, who retired in 2013 after 17 seasons in the NFL, responded that he “had finished everything I had wanted to accomplish as a player individually.”

What has Travis Kelce said about returning for another season?

During his December 2025 conversation with Gonzalez, Kelce reflected on what he would be coming back for if he were to play another season in the NFL.

“Just the fact that I know when it’s over, it’s over,” he said. “And I feel like I don’t know, like I still have a lot of love for this game. I feel like if I came back it would be to answer that flame in my heart that I still love this thing.”

However, Kelce noted that even if he wants to return to the Chiefs, the decision is a “two-way street.”

“I got to hope that if I do want to come back, the Chiefs are willing to bring me back,” he said. “So it’s a two-way street on that. But at the same time, man, at this point in this year, I’m just trying to finish out and give Chiefs Kingdom everything that I’ve got and go out there and do it with some of that flair that you said I play with.”

Kelce continued to dance around retirement rumors during a Jan. 7 episode of New Heights, after saying the recent season would be a “tough way to go out.”

The football player shared that he planned to spend “a couple weeks” or “a month or so” being a “regular human” and contemplating the decision to retire.

“I’ve talked to a few people in the facility already, you know, having the exit meetings and everything, and, they know where I stand at least right now,” he said, adding that he still has “a lot of love for the game” but the retirement decision is a “tough thing to navigate.”

“At the same time, if my body can heal up and rest up and I can feel confident that I can go out there and give it another 18, 20, 21-week run, I think, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Kelce continued.

What have Travis Kelce’s coach and teammates said about his potential retirement?

On Jan. 5, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said during the team’s final press conference of the season that “there are a lot of variables” that will factor into whether Kelce will come back for another season.

“We all love Travis. Trav can still play,” he said, adding that the team and Kelce have “a little bit of time to figure everything out.”

Meanwhile, Kelce’s teammate Chris Jones spoke to the media after their Jan. 4 game and shared his optimism about the tight end’s return.

“He’ll be back next year,” Jones said. But when a reporter asked if that was a “promise,” Jones replied, “I can’t promise you anything about another man, but I just don’t know. I don’t know.”

Jones continued, “This year was a tricky year for us. I got faith in my dawg coming back.”

What would Travis Kelce do if he leaves the NFL?

Given that Kelce has not made his final decision about retirement, he also has not shared any post-NFL plans. However, even while in the NFL, Kelce has already built his résumé in several endeavors off the field, from opening a steakhouse with teammate Patrick Mahomes to leading New Heights with his brother.

It’s possible he’d also continue dipping into the entertainment industry, following his cameo in Happy Gilmore 2 and having a role in Ryan Murphy‘s FX series Grotesquerie. Kelce is also in the midst of wedding planning with his fiancée, Taylor Swift, who he announced his engagement to in August 2025.