WITH EACH PASSING stage in his truly unpredictable career, Travis Kelce has managed to grow in prominence. The Travis Kelce fan club was probably a fairly limited group when he first made his way to the University of Cincinnati’s football team back in 2008; Rivals.com ranked him as only a two-star prospect. But throughout his five years playing as a Bearcat (he redshirted his freshman season and lost another full year due to a marijuana suspension) he managed to show NFL scouts enough to get drafted in the third round of the 2013 draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. At this point, his notoriety had already leveled up.
But even once reaching what should have been an early professional apex, he was faced, again, with a difficulty: he missed virtually his entire rookie season with a knee injury. But that would be it, as Kelce’s second year found him playing at a Pro Bowl level, where he’s remained there ever since, to the tune of three Super Bowl wins and nine Pro Bowl appearances. Once Kelce became a star on the field, he never looked back.
His star off the field, though, has only continued to grow with time. This fall, while the 35-year-old will try to win his fourth Super Bowl, during his 12th season with the Chiefs, he’ll also be seen elsewhere on your devices. He’s currently playing a supporting role in Ryan Murphy’s Se7en-esque FX thriller Grotesquerie, hosting the 20-episode first season of Prime Video’s Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity, and, of course, co-hosting the New Heights podcast with his brother, Jason (which recently earned a $100 million distribution deal with Amazon).
Seemingly just like that, Kelce has become the most popular off-the-field-and-on-your-screens athlete of the moment. Tom Brady may have had his moment in 80 For Brady, but you don’t see him acting in prestige TV or hosting game shows. Steph Curry starred in a sitcom called Mr. Throwback that debuted over the summer. Have you heard about that? Didn’t think so. Kelce’s star has risen in a short period of time, but it’s something that feels sustainable, and, in a way, real. How has this happened?
It’s impossible to talk about the latest stage of Kelce’s career without talking about the very public relationship that he’s been a part of for the last year and change—and we’re not talking about with Patrick Mahomes. Kelce’s romance with Taylor Swift has certainly catapulted him to a new level of fame, and made him a name to certain parties who likely would not typically know of any football players at all (even future Hall-of-Famers). But even before dating one of the biggest music stars alive, he’d been chipping away at the off-the-field thing for a while.
Let’s first go back to 2016, when Kelce led the VH1 dating show Catching Kelce. This show was wild, and, speaking from experience, felt like an absolute fever dream at the time. Kelce was already well-established as a good player in the NFL, but he was nowhere near as popular he is today (nor was his on-camera persona anywhere near as polished as it’s become). It felt random and strange! There are lots of well-established good players in the NFL, but hardly any of them got dating shows on VH1! The show only lasted one season and its existence remains questionable, but nonetheless it proved the Chiefs star had an appetite for cameras and an eagerness to be more than just a stud pass-catcher.
In 2020, Kelce appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in the A24-produced sitcom Moonbase 8. The little-seen show starred the hilarious trio of John C. Reilly, Fred Armisen, and Tim Heidecker as aspiring astronauts; Kelce is part of their NASA program as a part of a supposed public relations stunt. His self-deprecation in taking this kind of cameo role alone showed that he had the sense of humor needed for a successful career in show business (and that he would be willing to take some of the lumps that inevitably come with an acting career; not everything is going to hit, and some criticism will sooner-or-later be likely). Not many people saw Moonbase 8, but it’s another sign of Kelce’s ambition and, more vitally, his self-awareness.
The two make for an entertaining pair, and Kelce’s warm demeanor, combined with his 6-foot-5, 250 pound frame, make him a unique on-screen presence.
Kelce has always wanted to do these kinds of things; perhaps dating a massive pop star has simply opened the right doors, garnering him a greater level of cultural cache outside of the NFL, and putting him and his not-inconsiderable charisma on the radar of TV mogul Ryan Murphy. Grotesquerie marks Kelce’s very first actual acting job, and while he’s probably not going to win an Emmy any time soon, he’s enjoyable to watch; most of his scenes are shared with Niecy Nash-Betts’s lead detective character. The two make for an entertaining pair, and Kelce’s warm demeanor, combined with his 6-foot-5, 250 pound frame, make him a unique on-screen presence. Sure, he might be playing some kind of angel of death, but with a smile like that, who could worry?
Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity is an entry in what I like to call the genre of Smooth Brain Television. It is a silly, silly game show, where the questions are incredibly simple, and the panel of celebrity guests keep things light, easy-going, and yes, fairly dumb. It is a show meant to be on your TV while talking to friends, or scrolling on your phone, and Kelce is genuinely a great host for it. He’s quick with comebacks, has nice rapport with the celebrity panel, and, like on his New Heights podcast, just seems like a solid guy. That’s about all you could ask for from a Smooth Brain Television host (Rob Lowe has mastered this role on FOX’s The Floor).
The real question is what comes next. At 35, Kelce is no NFL spring chicken; it’s likely he hangs it up in the next couple of years, and right now we’re seeing his test run before launching into entertainment full-time. Has anyone had a career quite like this? Wrestlers like The Rock, John Cena, and Dave Bautista, who have all launched post-WWE acting careers, don’t quite count, because there’s quite a bit of showmanship built into that inherently. People like LeBron James have had great turns on the screen during their career, but even LeBron’s standout performance in 2015’s Trainwreck was essentially just playing a funny version of himself. Kevin Durant’s acting career never really panned out. Kyrie Irving was kind of doing something with his Uncle Drew era, but with his ten zillion controversies we can kiss that dream goodbye. Aaron Rodgers tried hosting Jeopardy! and made a cameo on Game of Thrones, but his non-football interests and stances probably place him closer to the fringes than the entertainment mainstream.
Who else? Kevin Garnett was amazing in Uncut Gems, but was, again, playing himself, and hasn’t followed-up with any acting roles since. Even some of the great athlete performances, like Ray Allen in Spike Lee’s He Got Game, were kind of just one-off moments that the athletes never returned to.
The closest comparisons for us to look at would have to be a pair of late NFL stars of decades past: Jim Brown, and, unfortunately, O.J. Simpson. Brown was universally known as one of the best running backs in NFL history, and he followed his career up with a lengthy film career that included appearances in movies like The Dirty Dozen and Mars Attacks!. Simpson, while infamous for other reasons, had a lengthy film and television career and was particularly appreciated for his physical presence and comedic work in the Naked Gun movies. But we know how that one turned out.
There are plenty of fantastic, acclaimed actors who you may not even realize started as athletes. Jason Statham was a diver. Vinnie Jones was a soccer player for Chelsea. Jon Bernthal played baseball in Russia. Wyatt Russell played professional hockey, and his dad, Kurt Russell, played professional baseball. Jason Lee, of My Name is Earl fame, was well known for his skateboarding before his roles in Kevin Smith’s movies of the ’90s helped him make it big as an actor. Carl Weathers, Burt Reynolds, Fred Williamson, and John David Washington all played in or adjacent to the NFL before their acting careers took off. Former NHL player Sean Avery has randomly had roles in both Tenet and Oppenheiemer; maybe Christopher Nolan is just a big fan of quick, gritty forwards.
He’s quick with comebacks, has nice rapport with the celebrity panel, and, like on his New Heights podcast, just seems like a solid guy.
Which is all to say: it can be done. Hell, look at one of the NFL’s most one-of-a-kind personalities of the last few decades in Marshawn Lynch. He was a quote machine during his time playing, and now that he’s a couple years removed from the league, he’s proven a comedic natural. His episode of Netflix’s Murderville (an improv comedy show starring Will Arnett) was a fan-favorite, and his role in last year’s hilarious Bottoms earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination.
Kelce’s profile also seems built for longevity in the public eye. As long as he’s dating Taylor Swift he’ll continue to be culturally relevant and generate headlines, of course, but he’s also had the kind of NFL career that will eventually land him in Canton, and deem him forever relevant, whether he’s on TV multiple times a week (like his brother, Jason, now an ESPN personality, or Michael Strahan) or showing up in the projects he deems worthy (like the aforementioned Jim Brown). Plus, who doesn’t like to see someone who just gives off a natural “solid guy” vibe pop up in their movies and shows here and there?
In a lot of cases, it would seem like comedy and action are the routes where some of these athletes-turned-actors like to go. And that makes sense, because that’s exactly where Kelce is headed next. He’s got an unknown role coming up in Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2 (due out on Netflix next year), and it was recently announced that he’ll be leading his own action-comedy movie, Loose Cannons, from Lionsgate, with John Wick maestro Chad Stahelski set to produce.
Now, will that movie be good? That much we cannot say. But if the past trajectory of Kelce’s career is anything to go off of, it may not be wise to bet against it.
