As a college football player in 2010, Travis Kelce was suspended for a full season and didn’t know if he had any future in football. He says his big brother was the person who kept his hope alive.
As Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce prepare to be the first pair of brothers to play in a Super Bowl, Travis reflected today on his suspension in 2010, when both players were on the Cincinnati football team. Travis reportedly was suspended for testing positive for marijuana, and he now sees the way his brother took care of him as crucial to his ability to keep playing football.
“When I got removed from the team I got my scholarship taken so I was staying with my brother, I was in his room and his house, kind of like two brothers growing up living in the same room,” Travis Kelce said. “So in terms of rent I wasn’t paying rent, in terms of food he was helping me with food, so I was literally living off him for quite a while down there and he was my lifeline. I was trying to do the right things, and he went into the coaches’ office and talked to numerous coaches and numerous people in the Cincinnati staff to try to get me another chance to be on the team. I’m forever in debt to this guy for putting his name, our name, putting his honor on the line to get me another chance. When I say I owe it all to him, I really do.”
In 2011 Jason Kelce was drafted by the Eagles, and Cincinnati reinstated Travis Kelce and started giving him his first significant playing time at tight end. In 2012 Travis Kelce’s career took off with by far his best season, which led to him being a third-round pick of the Chiefs in the 2013 NFL draft.