The two best tight ends in history (to me) are former New England Patriot Rob Gronkowski and Kansas City’s Travis Kelce. The former had a different style than the latter but they were both absolutely devastating. For much of Kelce’s career, which began in 2013, he was unstoppable. That’s not an overstatement. In the modern history of the league there are maybe 10-15 offensive players that no matter how well a defense played them, no matter what strategies it employed, most of the time, that player still dominated. Think Eric Dickerson or Cris Carter. Kelce was on that level.
All of this led to Kelce making ten Pro Bowls and the 2010s All-Decade team. Also, Kelce has been an exemplary human being off the field.
However, this season we did not see that All-Decade team Kelce.
We saw something different. For parts of the year, he was good. He had 97 catches. For much of the season, however, he was not. The angularity and aggression of his route running was sometimes gone. Travis Kelce looked average and at times below average. Which is a remarkable statement.
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On his recent ‘New Heights’ podcast he talked about taking some time to decide if he was going to retire. Hall of Famers Bill Parcells and Marv Levy are both alleged to have said that if you’re thinking about retirement, you’re already retired.
Clearly, and without question, it’s time for Kelce to do just that. This isn’t a call for him to retire. Not my place. This is based solely on what can be seen with the naked eye. All of those remarkable physical abilities have fallen off a cliff.
Can he get them back? It’s always possible. But he doesn’t look anywhere close to the Kelce we’ve come to know.
By now, you’ve likely seen the viral clips of Kelce from Super Bowl 59. They are snapshots and snapshots aren’t always fair. These are.
For those of us who are Kelce truthers, who hold him in such high esteem, we saw some of this with Kelce last season. He had moments, to be sure, but he looked increasingly sluggish.
Time gets us all. No matter how skilled or smart or great. Kelce of course knows this and his understanding of the wear and tear of time was a through line of what he said on the podcast. That part is worth reading in its entirety.
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‘I know everybody wants to know whether or not I’m playing next year. Right now, I’m just kicking everything down the road,’ Kelce said. ‘I’m kicking every can that I can down the road. I’m not making any crazy decisions, but right now, the biggest thing is just being there for my teammates and being there for my coaches, understanding that there’s a lot that goes into this thing.
‘I’ve been fortunate over the past five, six years, I’ve played more football than anybody. It’s because the people that are in that building and the fact that we keep going to these AFC championships, these Super Bowls, that means I’m playing an extra three games more than everybody else in the entire league.
‘That’s a lot of wear and tear on your body. It’s a lot of time spent in the building, focusing on your craft, focusing on the task at hand, every challenge that you set for yourself. That process can be grueling. It can weigh on you. It can make you better and it can drive you crazy at the same time. Right now, it’s one of those things where it was kind of driving me crazy this year. I think that it happens as you kind of tail off towards the back nine of your career. As you see yourself or not feel yourself have the success that you once used to have, it’s a tough pill to swallow. On top of that, to not be there in the biggest moments, knowing your team’s counting on you, man, those are all extremely hard things to…It’s just a tough reality.’
One other thing that made Kelce so formidable was his fiery nature. In Super Bowl 59 he looked half-asleep.
Kelce will waltz into the Hall of Fame. He will be special even among that group of special players.
Wish we could fast forward to that moment now.