1989-present
Travis Kelce News: Football Star and Taylor Swift Are Engaged
When he got down on one knee, Travis Kelce said “you belong with me”—or something like that.
The NFL star is engaged to pop singer Taylor Swift, news the couple shared in a joint Instagram post on August 26. “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” the caption read, with photos showing the couple celebrating after Kelce popped the question in a rose-covered garden.
Kelce, 35, publicly shared his interest in Swift, also 35, during a July 2023 episode of New Heights, his podcast with brother Jason Kelce. By the time, the “Love Story” singer appeared at a Kansas City Chiefs game that September, they had been dating for some time. Swift has regularly cheered on the tight end from the stands, including at the last two Super Bowls, while Kelce famously took the stage during Swift’s globetrotting Eras Tour in June 2024.
Earlier this month, Swift appeared alongside her beau on New Heights to announce her next album,The Life of a Showgirl. During the episode, Kelce spoke about the joy he felt getting to know the music superstar. “You see you on the stage and you see how crazy you can get an entire stadium going, and then I get you in a room and it’s like I’ve known you forever,” he told Swift. “It was just the easiest conversation I ever had, and it was just so much fun that it just knocked my socks off.”
As Swift is focusing on her new album, Kelce is about to take the field for his 13th season with the Chiefs. The team opens its schedule on September 5 against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Who Is Travis Kelce?
Football player Travis Kelce is one of the most successful tight ends in NFL history. Drafted out of the University of Cincinnati in 2013, Kelce has won three Super Bowls with the Kansas City Chiefs and ranks among career leaders in multiple stats. In 2023, Kelce reached a level of fame beyond sports when he began dating pop music megastar Taylor Swift. The couple got engaged in August 2025.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Travis Michael Kelce
BORN: October 5, 1989
BIRTHPLACE: Westlake, Ohio
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra
HEIGHT: 6 ft. 5 in.
Parents and Brother Jason Kelce
Travis Michael Kelce was born on October 5, 1989, in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. His mother, Donna, is a former junior Olympian in track and field who worked in the banking industry. Meanwhile, his father, Ed, is a former sales representative in the steel industry.
Ed taught Travis and his older brother, Jason, the importance of hard work from an early age, taking them to the steel mill where he worked. But away from their parents’ supervision, the brothers engaged in a fierce rivalry—sometimes throwing punches during their sibling quarrels. “Everything was a competition. It was a competition to see who could get to the table first, who could get to the front seat of the car—this is just typical sibling rivalry,” Donna explained to Today years later. Both kids were even kicked out of preschool for separate behavioral incidents.
Jason, who is two years older than Travis, eventually channeled some of his energy on the football field. He spent 13 years in the NFL as a center with the Philadelphia Eagles before retiring after the 2023 season. The two brothers are on much friendlier terms now and host the award-winning New Heights podcast, where they talk about football and a variety of other topics.
Ed and Donna divorced when Jason and Travis were in their 20s but have continued to support their football-playing sons. Notably, both of Travis’ parents appeared at Super Bowl 58 in 2024 to cheer on their son and his team, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Football Career: High School, College, and NFL
An athletic kid, Travis played basketball, baseball, and of course, football at Cleveland Heights High School. Although he received attention from colleges in all three sports, the future All-Pro was determined to play football, specifically quarterback. He earned All-Lake Erie League honors his senior year as a dual passing (1,523 yards and 21 touchdowns) and rushing (1,016 yards and 10 touchdowns) threat.
Despite these impressive stats, Kelce only received a two-star recruiting ranking and was viewed primarily as a tight end or defensive end. He ultimately chose to join older brother Jason at the University of Cincinnati in his home state over schools such as the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and West Virginia University.
Suspension at Cincinnati
Travis enrolled at the University of Cincinnati in 2008. With three quarterbacks already on the Bearcats football roster, he took a redshirt and didn’t play his true freshman season.
The following year, Kelce played sparingly in the wildcat formation by taking direct snaps from the center and running with the ball. The Bearcats went undefeated and earned a berth in the Sugar Bowl against the University of Florida. While the game resulted in a 51–24 loss, the trip to New Orleans proved even more devastating for Kelce. He failed a drug test for marijuana, lost his scholarship, and eventually received a season-long suspension in 2010 for violating team rules.
The team might have moved on from Kelce entirely if not for Jason, who begged coaches over the entire offseason to give his younger brother a second chance. “I’m forever thankful for that conversation,” Travis told the Club Shay Shay podcast. “It took a lot of guts for him to be able to go in there and put his name on the line for myself, knowing that I threw this scholarship away and down the drain.”
Kelce returned in 2011 as a full-time tight end and showed flashes of greatness with 13 catches and two touchdowns. As a redshirt senior the following year, he established new career highs with 45 receptions, 722 yards, and 8 touchdowns. Now, he was clearly on the radar of NFL teams—enough so that he left college before finishing his degree. He eventually earned his bachelor of interdisciplinary studies in 2022.
Star with the Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs saw enough potential in Kelce to select him in the third round of the 2013 NFL draft. He chose to wear No. 87 in the pros in reference to brother Jason’s birth year, 1987. Travis appeared in only one game his rookie season before undergoing a microfracture procedure to fix a cartilage problem in his knee.
After his recovery, Kelce became one of the most durable and productive tight ends in the league. He earned his first of nine straight Pro Bowl selections in 2015, hauling in 72 catches for 875 yards. Kelce recorded his first 1,000-yard season a year later in 2016 and caught a personal best 8 touchdowns in 2017.
Despite Kelce’s success, the Chiefs won only a single playoff game during this time. But after drafting young quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City quickly developed into a championship contender. Kelce had his best season ever in 2018—setting career highs in receptions, yards, and touchdowns—and the team advanced to the AFC Championship Game against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Kelce caught a touchdown in the game, but the Chiefs ultimately fell 37-31 after losing the overtime coin toss. Kelce took responsibility for the defeat, saying: “Frustrated with how I played personally. Just gotta be better for my teammates.”
He didn’t have to wait long for a chance at redemption.
Super Bowl Wins
In the 2019 season, Kelce and the Chiefs were determined to shake off the sting of their playoff loss. The tight end posted the second-best season of his career in terms of receptions (97) and yards (1,229), and the Chiefs again advanced to the AFC Championship Game against the Tennessee Titans. The Chiefs rallied from an early deficit, winning 35–24 to advance to Super Bowl 54. In the big game, Kelce caught six passes—including a crucial second-half touchdown—and helped the Chiefs outlast the San Francisco 49ers, 31–20.
Led by Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, the Chiefs became a yearly title threat. Kelce benefitted more than anyone, recording at least 92 catches each of the next four years and extending his streak of 1,000-yard seasons to seven, the longest for a tight end in NFL history. Kelce and the Chiefs returned to the Super Bowl in 2021, losing 31–9 to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Only two years later, Kelce led Kansas City with 81 receiving yards and a touchdown, as the team won a 38–35 thriller over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 57 for its second title in four years. Travis and Jason made history in the game, becoming the first brothers to face each other in the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs became the ninth team to repeat as champions in 2024, winning a 25–22 rematch over the 49ers in Super Bowl 58.
Although Kelce recorded his fewest receiving yards (823) since his rookie year, the Chiefs again rolled through the 2024 season and playoffs, advancing to a Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles. However, Philadelphia won, 40–22, to deny Kelce a three-peat. The tight end confirmed shortly after the game he would return for a 13th season later that fall, ending retirement speculation. “When I really thought about it this offseason, I got back to wanting to focus on this game and getting the most out of this game as I can, while I’m still putting on the cleats and pads,” he said.
Ahead of the 2025 season, Kelce reflected on his recent on-field performance and acknowledged that his focus was also on his burgeoning entertainment career. “I feel like these past two years haven’t been to my standard,” he told GQ . “I just have such a motivation to show up this year for my guys.”
Height and Career Stats
Listed at 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds according to his Kansas City Chiefs profile, Kelce possesses a rare combination of size and speed that has helped him become one of the most productive tight ends ever. As of August 2025, Kelce ranks third all-time at the position in career receptions (1,004) and receiving yards (12,151).
Kelce has saved some of his best performances for the postseason and Super Bowl. En route to his third title in 2024, he broke Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice’s record for career playoff receptions and now has 178 total. Kelce ranks second to Rice in both postseason receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. Here is a full rundown of Kelce’s NFL stats:
- Games played: 175
- Receptions: 1,004 (642 for first downs)
- Receiving yards: 12,151
- Receiving touchdowns: 77
- Playoff games: 25
- Playoff receptions: 178 (NFL record)
- Playoff receiving yards: 2,078
- Playoff receiving touchdowns: 20
- Super Bowl titles: 3
- Pro Bowl selections: 10
Fiancée Taylor Swift
In 2023, Kelce became a household name among many non-football fans after beginning a romantic relationship with pop music superstar Taylor Swift. The couple dated for two years before jointly announcing their engagement on Instagram in August 2025.
The pair connected after Kelce tried, and initially failed, to give the singer a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it during Swift’s Eras Tour concert in Kansas City on July 8. “I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings. So, I was a little butthurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her,” Kelce told his brother, Jason, on their New Heights podcast. “She doesn’t meet anybody, or at least she didn’t want to meet me, so I took it personal.”
However, Swift became aware of Kelce’s intentions and gave him a chance. By the time she appeared at a Kansas City Chiefs home game on September 24, 2023, they were a couple. The “Blank Space” and “Shake It Off” singer continued to appear at Kelce’s games throughout the season, including the Super Bowl in February 2024.
Similarly, Kelce has accompanied Swift to a number of her Eras Tour concerts. Swift has altered the lyrics to some of her songs in reference to Kelce and even invited her beau to appear onstage in a tuxedo during a June 2024 performance in London. “I think personally that’s the beauty of being in a very strong relationship is that you get that support to be able to come in and focus on your craft,” Kelce said in a January 2025 interview. “That’s why I wanted to be at the concerts supporting her, being there for her and making sure she feels comfortable and supported in everything she’s doing in life.”
In August 2025, Swift appeared on Kelce’s podcast New Heights to announce her next album, titled The Life of a Showgirl. The episode set a Guinness World Record with 1.3 million concurrent viewers, the most ever for a YouTube podcast.
Catching Kelce Dating Show
Years before Kelce and Swift embarked on their own love story, the football player was a reality TV suitor. In 2016, Kelce starred in the E! reality dating series Catching Kelce, in which 50 women vied for his affection. Kelce, who was 25 at the time of filming, has described the series as “kind of like The Bachelor, except instead of roses, I handed out footballs, and instead of watching, people did not.” He later admitted he agreed to the show primarily for monetary reasons. Kelce ultimately selected Maya Benberry as his partner, but their relationship lasted only a few months.
The tight end also dated reporter and social media personality Kayla Nicole from 2017 through 2022.
TV: Saturday Night Live and More
Known for his boisterous personality, Kelce has built a TV presence extending far beyond football and Catching Kelce. In 2023, Travis appeared as himself in the Prime Video documentary Kelce, about his brother Jason’s penultimate season with the Eagles and family life away from the field.
Kelce has appeared as a guest on a variety of award shows and entertainment programs, including serving as a commentator on the miniature golf-themed game show Holey Moley in 2022 and the host of sketch comedy staple Saturday Night Live in March 2023. He and Taylor Swift also made cameo appearances on the show later that October.
In April 2024, Amazon announced Kelce as host of the spinoff trivia competition Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? airing on Prime Video. The series began later that October and featured celebrity guests as resources for contestants answering trivia questions to win $100,000.
The football star also appeared in the horror series Grotesquerie, starring actor Niecy Nash-Betts and had a role in the 2025 comedy sequel Happy Gilmore 2, starring Adam Sandler and Bad Bunny. He is expected to star in the upcoming action comedy Loose Cannons, though no theatrical release has been announced for the movie.
Net Worth and Contract
Celebrity Net Worth estimated Kelce’s total fortune at around $90 million as of August 2025.
In April 2024, Kelce received a new two-year playing contract for the Kansas City Chiefs worth $34.25 million, making him the highest-paid tight end in NFL history based on annual value. He will have earned more than $100 million in career playing salary by the end of the deal.
According to a 2024 Forbes article, Kelce has earned an estimated $5 million in endorsements from companies such as Bud Light, Nike, Pfizer, and State Farm. However, Sportico reported the football star’s endorsement deals could total as much as $30 million.
In June 2024, Kelce and his brother, Jason, invested in an Ohio-based beer company. The siblings also struck a podcast deal reportedly worth more than $100 million over three years, beginning in August.
Quotes
- You can’t put any more pressure than I put on myself. That’s just the heart of a competitor.
- Just goes to show you, if you smoke weed and you are bad at school, you can win the Super Bowl twice!
- Once you have success, you have to maintain success.
- The only way you can find yourself in the light is to find yourself in the dark first.
- On his relationship with Taylor Swift: I’ve never been a man of words. Being around her, seeing how smart Taylor is, has been f–– mind-blowing. I’m learning every day.
- I do want people to look at me like I’m doing good in the world, I’m influencing and using my platform for the better, being a role model, being somebody that has done it the right way.
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Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
