While the swirl of chatter around Travis Kelce on Christmas Day was on whether he plans to retire at the end of the season, the 11-time Pro Bowl tight end quietly moved up to No. 9 on the NFL all-time receiving list.
Kelce’s fifth and last catch in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 20-13 loss to the Denver Broncos was No. 1,077, pushing him past Anquan Boldin. With two more receptions in the Chiefs’ regular-season finale, Kelce will surpass Terrell Owens in the No. 8 spot.
Statistics were seemingly the last thing on Kelce’s mind as he walked off the Arrowhead Stadium field Thursday, perhaps for the last time. The Chiefs finish the season on the road next week against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Kelce’s recent years are inextricably linked to his fiance Taylor Swift. Was this the last time the country music megastar would grace the Kelce family luxury suiteto watch her beau rack up the receptions? (If so, let the record show that Swift wore a red bomber jacket from the Frankie Shop.)
Kelce, 36, admitted he was feeling reflective afterward.
“A whole lot of emotions,” he told reporters. “You’ve got everybody in the world watching you. You get to go out there with the young guys on prime-time television. Young guys getting an opportunity to taste what this NFL life is like.”
For Kelce, the NFL life has been fulfilling. He’s won three Super Bowls and is all but certain to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. And he’s played his entire 13-year career with the Chiefs.
So while he sorted through emotions and memories after the game, he basked in the adulation beforehand.
“You only get a few of those where you get to stand there and appreciate 70,000 Chiefs fans cheering for you,” he explained. “I always embrace that moment.
“You feel the generations of happiness and the love [the fans] have. It’s a beautiful thing, man.”
For a decade, Kelce was a regional sports figure, revered in the Midwest as a hard-nosed, consistent producer on the field. His profile began to change ahead of the 2022 season when he his brother, Jason, launched an immediately popular podcast, “New Heights.”
Kelce and Swift began dating ahead of the 2023 season and a year later the Kelce brothers signed a three-year, $100 million podcast deal with Amazon’s Wondery. Then in August, Kelce and Swift announced their engagement.
Tight ends, with their three-point stances and proximity to tackles and guards, traditionally don’t seek or attract attention. But suffice to say, Kelce is now a full-fledged national celebrity.
Just don’t allow that to obscure his numbers. Kelce has 73 catches for 839 yards in 2025, putting him alongside Jerry Rice as the only players in NFL history to eclipse the 800 yards receiving mark in 12 consecutive seasons. Kelce also is the only tight end to exceed 90 catches seven seasons in a row, a streak that will end this year.
Rice, the former San Francisco 49ers great, is the NFL‘s all-time leading receiver with 1,549 catches. Larry Fitzgerald is next with 1,432. Then come the only tight ends with more catches than Kelce: Tony Gonzalez (1,325) and Jason Witten(1,228).
Should Kelce decide to play another season, he almost certainly would climb to No. 5, passing Marvin Harrison (1,102), Cris Carter (1,101) and Tim Brown (1,094) in addition to Owens.
Kelce may have already decided whether this is the right time to retire. He just isn’t ready to say so now, indicating he will let the Chiefs know soon after the season ends.
“I’ll let that be a decision I’ll make with my family, friends and the Chiefs organization when the time comes,” he said.
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