UPDATE: 1/7/24, 3 p.m. ET — Travis Kelce will not play in Sunday’s game, the Kansas City Chiefs announced via X two hours before kickoff. “TE Travis Kelce has been ruled OUT for today’s game against the Chargers (Coaching Decision),” the post read.
Original story:
Travis Kelce revealed whether or not he plans to play in the Kansas City Chiefs’ last NFL game of the 2023-2024 regular season.
“I know Coach [Andy] Reid is gonna do what’s best for the time and right now I’m not quite sure exactly how it’s gonna play out [and] if guys are gonna sit [on the bench], what guys are gonna get elevated,” Kelce, 34, said during the Friday, January 5, episode of his“New Heights” podcast. “It’s really going depend on who’s on your roster and how many guys you can deactivate and still put together a good team and have a full squad ready to go.”
The Chiefs are traveling to L.A. for a Sunday, January 7, away game against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Week 18 game is the final one for both teams in the regular NFL season. To accommodate future playoff schedules and a potential Super Bowl appearance, coaches may bench certain starting players this week. Kelce, a tight end for the Chiefs since 2013, is currently on the starting lineup of offensive linemen.
“Veteran teams [and] older players in squads, I think then it makes sense to rest them, get their legs back because older players, the end of the season affects them more,” Travis’ brother, Jason Kelce, explained on Friday. “[And] how you’re entering the playoffs, like for us [on the Philadelphia Eagles], we have not entered the playoffs with any type of momentum. I think it would be nice to go out there and try to build something in this last game and enter the postseason with some positivity.”
Jason, 36, added, “I don’t think it’s a cut explanation of rest or play. I think a lot of it depends on the context of how you’re entering the playoffs, where your team’s at, how beat up they are [and] all that stuff factors into it.”
The Chiefs, for their part, are heading into Sunday’s game at the top of their conference. After their New Year’s Eve win against the Cincinnati Bengals, they came out on top of AFC West. The Missouri-based team has had an overall successful season following their Super Bowl LVII victory, their second in three years. (Travis and the Chiefs narrowly beat Jason and the Eagles at the championship in February 2023.)
They’ve also had a VIP fan in the stands at many of their games: Travis’ girlfriend, Taylor Swift.
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“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Swift, 34, gushed to TIME in a December 2023 profile. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
Travis and Swift have been dating since summer 2023 and she attended her first Chiefs game the following September. It is unlikely, however, that Swift will attend Sunday’s game as it overlaps with the 81st annual Golden Globes, where she received a nomination for her Eras Tour documentary.
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