Travis Kelce is entering his 14th NFL season while quietly building what comes after it. As retirement talk follows him into camp, the Chiefs tight end has just put real infrastructure behind his next act, and it has nothing to do with a broadcast booth.
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Publicis Sports and 3 Arts Sports announced this week via Instagram that they’re teaming up with Kelce to launch TEKTA, a new venture aimed at fixing one of college sports’ most tangled problems: how brands actually find, sign, and measure NIL partnerships with student-athletes.
“I am excited to leverage my lived experience and professional perspective to help close the gap for brands and athletes alike,” Travis said of the new venture in a statement. “Streamlining the process will allow everyone to fully realize the potential of engaging across the board, including the significant opportunity that lies in those untapped sports and undiscovered personalities.”
The problem TEKTA is trying to solve is a real one. The NIL market is projected to hit $4.5 billion for the 2026-27 season, up from $3.6 billion the year before, according to NIL platform Opendorse. Publicis Sports CEO Suzy Deering explained why that growth has outpaced the tools brands actually have to navigate it.
“Many of our clients are looking for ways to connect with customers at a local level, while also delivering scale and laddering up to a regional or national program,” Deering said. “This has been challenging, if not impossible, to do from a brand standpoint, given all the pain points.”
She added that marketers are often stuck picking talent based on “whether whatever agent is doing a good job,” with no reliable way to track whether the partnership actually worked afterward.
TEKTA is built to close that gap. Publicis Sports will handle strategy for brand clients, then hand it off to TEKTA to identify the right athletes and schools, drawing on a network that covers 45,000 Division I athletes across 68 Power Four universities. Kelce is serving as an adviser rather than a day-to-day operator, something Deering was direct about given his actual job.
“Needless to say, he has his day job right now,” Deering said, “but he is very hands-on from an advisor perspective.”
3 Arts Sports, the talent management firm that represents Kelce and part of Lionsgate’s 3 Arts Entertainment, is joining as a strategic operating partner, contributing relationships across universities, conferences, and college athletics. Aaron and Andre Eanes, the firm’s co-heads of sports, framed the whole venture as filling a gap the industry hasn’t solved yet.
“The sports industry doesn’t need more competition, it needs more connection,” they said. “Publicis Sports follows the data, Travis has one of the highest value portfolios in all of sports, and our team has spent years building the athlete and university relationships that make these deals actually work. Together we’re providing what brands and athletes have been asking for in a way that’s never been done.”
The venture isn’t just built for brands either. According to Sports Business Journal, TEKTA plans to layer in education on branding, partnership fundamentals, and financial literacy for athletes themselves, along with longer-term support around career and brand development, while giving them access to vetted national opportunities and clearer deal terms through 3 Arts Sports.
The announcement lands at a busy personal moment for Kelce too, just over a month after he married Taylor Swift on July 3 in a private ceremony at Madison Square Garden, before returning to Kansas City to gear up for the season.
TEKTA gives Kelce a concrete business role right now, but it’s a different move than the one he actually said he wanted for life after football.
Travis Kelce weighed in on his second act
During an episode of the New Heights Podcast in April 2026, Kelce told his brother that he wanted to follow in Tom Brady’s footsteps. Although he refused to be a part owner of an NFL team, a broadcasting venture seemed alluring for the tight end.
“I want to broadcast when I’m done playing,” Kelce said. “I want to be the talking head that calls the games. You can’t call the game or do anything like that [have a stake in a team] because of the whole Tom Brady thing. He wanted to have a minority stake in the [Las Vegas] Raiders and it messed with his TV deal.”
Well, Brady’s role in the Raiders dictates strict broadcasting rules. He cannot criticize the teams or referees; he has to attend the practices, pregame production meetings, and also has to comply with the gambling policies. But does that mean Kelce wants a shot with a brand like ESPN?
“I don’t know, man. ESPN is a very polished organization. I don’t know if I would…,” Travis joked. “I’m just kidding, I’d have a f—ing blast, dude!”
For now, both paths stay open. Kelce’s focus remains on his 14th NFL season and chasing another Super Bowl ring, but TEKTA is already up and running behind him, giving him a real commercial foothold in college sports well before he has to decide whether the broadcast booth or the boardroom comes next.