“Big Yeti” is apparently not interested in slowing down. Ever heard of a 36-year-old getting yanked from practice because he was working too much? That is exactly what happened with Travis Kelce. When the Chiefs wrapped training camp on August 20, Andy Reid admitted coaches had to pull their oldest player off the field just to make him take a breather.

“You have examples like Kelce; he’s the oldest guy on the team and came out every day and worked to where you had to yank him out of there to give him a breather,” Reid said to the reporters after practice.

The Chiefs lost 20-12 to the Rams on August 15, but the result hardly told the full story. Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes did not play, as Kansas City used the preseason game to test its younger players and see who could actually earn a roster spot.

But while Kelce sat out the preseason game, he was anything but passive in camp. His workload caught the attention of his teammates, and linebacker Nick Bolton made it clear after camp ended that the 36-year-old was still setting the standard.

“There’s no excuses when you have the old guy out there running routes and stuff like that,” Bolton said. ” Been fun to watch [Kelce] work.”

That praise hits differently considering where Kelce stood just months earlier. By January 2026, retirement was no longer a side conversation. Kelce was 36, the Chiefs had missed the playoffs, and another uneven season had only made the questions louder. Reid still backed him, but even he was no longer talking like Kelce’s future was guaranteed.

“We all love Travis. Trav can still play. I’m not questioning that part or any of it. I’m not trying to avoid your question, but I know there’s time. Last year, I was asked kind of the same thing. We’ve got a little bit of time to figure everything out, and so does Trav.” Reid said.

But the retirement conversation around Kelce has never moved in a straight line.

In November 2023, he admitted the pain from 10 surgeries still followed him every day and had him thinking about walking away, only to shut that talk down two months later and say he had no desire to stop.

By September 2024, Kelce’s age and slow start were already feeding the decline talk, but Reid insisted he had not lost a step. Then came 2025, when Kelce admitted retirement was on his mind again, only for another playoff run to pull him back.

Even after the 40-22 Super Bowl loss, Reid told him not to make an emotional decision, and Brett Veach later said Kelce was still fired up to return.

By June, Kelce was done dancing around it. He knew he was getting older, knew the Super Bowl loss had exposed some of his own shortcomings, and still believed he had more to prove.

“I know I’m getting older, but at the same time I still feel like I got a lot that I can prove in this league. It really wasn’t that hard of a decision for me.” Travis said. “Last year I think I failed especially in that last game, in being a leader and being the one that can step up and make plays.”

By July, even Reid stopped pretending the end was far away, admitting Kelce could not play forever and making it clear that whenever he decided to leave, his legacy in Kansas City was already secure.

“You hope he plays forever, but that’s probably not gonna happen to any of us.” Reid said. “So whenever he decides to hang it up, he’s built a great legacy here. And if he decides this is it, it’s it. If not, more power to him.”

The problem was that the retirement talk was not coming out of nowhere. Kelce’s effort was still there, but his numbers had already started looking like those of a player in decline.

The hustle is there, but so is the decline

Kelce had a down year in 2024. He finished with 823 receiving yards and only three touchdowns, his lowest receiving-yard total since his one-game rookie season in 2013. What makes this more noticeable is that Kelce still played a lot. He was on the field for 950 plays and played 81.8% of the Chiefs’ offensive snaps, his highest percentage since 2019. So, even though he got plenty of playing time, his production still dropped. This raised concern over his declining gameplay.

The numbers improved slightly in 2025, but the bigger picture did not change much. Kelce played all 17 games and finished with 76 catches for 851 yards and five touchdowns, a small jump from his 823-yard season in 2024. He also led the Chiefs in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns in 2025.

Still, it marked his third straight season below 1,000 receiving yards after he had crossed that mark seven straight times from 2016 through 2022. More concerning was how inconsistent he became late in the year, with several games where Kansas City badly needed its veteran star and barely got anything from him.

After Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL against the Chargers on December 14, 2025, his season was over. That put even more pressure on Travis Kelce to carry Kansas City’s offense. But just one week later, Kelce managed only one catch for six yards against Tennessee as the Chiefs were blown out 26-9 by a Titans team that entered the game with only three wins.

Kelce also had a poor game against the Houston Texans two weeks earlier. He caught just one pass for eight yards, and the Chiefs lost 20-10 on December 7. So, in two important games, Kelce had only two catches for 14 yards, which added to concerns about his declining performance.

Kelce had not reached 1,000 receiving yards since 2022, giving critics more reason to argue that age was finally catching up with him. The Chiefs also needed to think about bringing in younger players for the future.

Yet Kelce chose to come back for another season, and his work in camp suggests he did not return just to go through the motions.

He is also working to improve his chemistry with Patrick Mahomes. During practice on August 13, Mahomes connected with Travis Kelce for completions.

The criticism might pour in, but Travis Kelce never gave up and fought through it all.

Travis Kelce nearly lost football before the NFL

Travis Kelce went through a very difficult time when he was young. He said getting professional help taught him how to understand his feelings better. It also helped him learn how to handle difficult situations without letting his emotions take control.

“I had to sit down with a shrink for an hour a week. He got me to look at my life way more strategically,” Kelce told GQ. “He got me to understand that you go through these emotions, and your reaction can either help you or hurt you or be indifferent.”

The problem started around Cincinnati’s trip to the 2010 Sugar Bowl. Kelce actually played against Florida, carrying the ball once for 19 yards, but a marijuana-related violation of team rules afterward cost him the entire 2010 season. He was removed from the team and lost his scholarship. Butch Jones had just taken over at Cincinnati, and Kelce eventually worked his way back onto the scout team without a scholarship before earning it back in 2011. Cincinnati’s own records confirm that he missed the entire 2010 season because of a team-rules violation.

Without his scholarship, Kelce knew he could not afford to fall behind. As part of earning his way back, he had to attend his classes, maintain a 3.0 GPA and go to weekly therapy. The experience forced him to take both school and football more seriously and became an important turning point before he eventually reached the NFL.

Today, age may be working against Kelce, but walking away has never come easily to him. He survived a mistake in college that nearly cost him football, rebuilt his career and eventually became one of the greatest tight ends the NFL has seen. Now the fight is different.

Kelce is no longer trying to save his career, but at 36, he is clearly not ready to surrender the final years of it either.