Travis Kelce is just about everywhere involving a camera these days. “Saturday Night Live.” The White House. The Eras Tour — and not just in the stands.
And, now, the Lake Tahoe area for the American Century Championship — for a sixth time, a figure that makes the three-time Super Bowl champion tight end double-take when he hears it.
“Time flies when you’re having fun. I didn’t know this was Year 6 for me,” Kelce said Friday to Golf Channel’s Kira K. Dixon. “Must be those karaoke contests that keep me coming back, ‘cause it’s definitely not been my golf.
“We’re gonna have some fun out there, and the crowd already looks electric. It’s always a blast out here in Tahoe.”
Perhaps it is the karaoke. Kelce followed in the footsteps (he’s got a ways to go) of Taylor Swift on Friday afternoon, winning the ACC’s karaoke competition and dedicating it to the pop megastar — a couple hours before his brother, future NFL Hall of Famer Jason Kelce, won the long drive competition that Travis won last year. (Travis insists — guarantees, actually — he’s the better golfer, though he hasn’t seen Jason play in about a decade, which is maybe the point.)
It’s yet another chapter in what the Chiefs tight end accurately called a “crazy offseason.”
“It’s been the funnest year of my life, I can definitely say that,” Kelce reflected. “I said that after the Super Bowl when I played my brother. Meeting my brother at the mountaintop was the peak of my life, and it’s just kinda been going up and up from there.”
Shortly after the conclusion of the ACC, though, that crazy offseason will come to an end and Kelce will be back in business mode as his Kansas City Chiefs vie for the NFL’s first ever three-peat.
It’s possible, he says. Anything’s possible. But he knows all too well it won’t be easy.
“We’ve got the full arsenal over there in Kansas City. You’ve gotta revamp the team every single year. You gotta re-mold the team. Hopefully out in [Saint Joseph, Mississippi] we can get a head start on that,” Kelce said. “It’s gonna be a long haul if we get a chance to do it. But I’m just excited to get back into the football world.”
Training camp starts for the Chiefs next Saturday. But eight days is an eternity for Travis Kelce.
Any plans in the meantime? Specifically — will “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” again feature a nine-time Pro Bowler, who also happens to be an American Century Championship long-drive and, now, karaoke winner?
“I can’t let anything out of the bag,” Kelce laughed. “But right now I’m in full football mode.
“After golf.”