A brand new NFL season is upon us, which implies it’s time for an additional spherical of sports activities media’s most infuriating recreation, “Travis Kelce is struggling, and it’s all Taylor Swift’s fault.”
Sure, after three video games, Travis has but to place in the kind of dominant efficiency that Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ followers have come to count on from their favourite tight finish.
In fact, there are doubtless many elements at play there, not the least of which is the truth that Kelce will flip 35 subsequent month.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce attend the lads’s last match between Italy’s Jannik Sinner and USA’s Taylor Fritz on day fourteen of the US Open tennis event on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle in New York Metropolis, on September 8, 2024. (Photograph by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
(For context, he’s a couple of decade older than the opposite two tight ends on the Chiefs’ roster.)
Prior to now, Travis’ efficiency has improved because the season progressed, and that’ll doubtless occur once more this 12 months.
However don’t inform that to the recent take machines who earn their residing spewing nonsense on lesser-known sports activities podcasts!
Travis Kelce appears to be like depressed throughout a profitable recreation of the 2024-25 season. (Youtube/NFL)
Kansas Metropolis Chiefs Coach Broadcasts Star Participant Has Already Been Benched
In the course of the Tremendous Bowl champs third recreation again of the 2024-25 season, much less consideration was placed on the truth that the fellows gained three video games in a row than Travis Kelce sitting on the bench.
Cameras caught Travis wanting sullen and depressed. Some assumed it was attributable to his girlfriend lacking the sport; others anxious it was due to his poor efficiency throughout the recreation. The latter feared Travis’ time on the bench would proceed if his recreation didn’t get into verify.
After which Andy Reid introduced he was benching certainly one of his star gamers for the foreseeable future.
However, it’s not Travis!
The left sort out place stays a serious query for the Chiefs, as neither rookie Kingsley Suamataia nor second-year Wanya Morris have stood out in a major means.
That’s why, after profitable three video games in a row, Reid instructed reporters that Morris would begin in Week 4 towards the Chargers. Suamataia due to this fact has formally been benched, and it’s unclear when he’ll get that left sort out job again.
So Travis is secure – for now…
Travis Kelce #87 of the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs celebrates with Taylor Swift after a 17-10 victory towards the Baltimore Ravens within the AFC Championship Sport at M&T Financial institution Stadium on January 28, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photograph by Patrick Smith/Getty Photographs)
Former ESPN analyst Todd McShay blasted Travis throughout a current look on one thing known as “The Ryen Russillo Show.”
“Every show I watch, every pregame show, halftime show, postgame show, weekday show, every broadcast I watch for the last few weeks, it’s like, are we not allowed to say that he’s out of shape?” McShay requested, in keeping with Web page Six.
“That he’s been partying all offseason? He’s been jet-setting around with the most famous person probably in the entire world,” the pundit continued.
“I want you to take a picture from preseason 2022 and then take a picture preseason 2024, they’re barely the same human being.”
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce attend the lads’s last match between Italy’s Jannik Sinner and USA’s Taylor Fritz on day fourteen of the US Open tennis event on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle in New York Metropolis, on September 8, 2024. (Photograph by ANGELA WEISS/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
The Many Causes of Travis’ Powerful Season
McShay went on to dismiss claims Kelce’s diminished manufacturing is a consequence of the truth that he’s a frequent goal for double protection by opposing defenses.
“Here’s the thing, bottom line with Kelce: The coverage and the respect he gets is the same, the athlete is not,” he mentioned.
“Now, is he going to work himself into form throughout the season? Yeah, I’m positive he’ll.
“He’s an unbelievable competitor, he’s one of the best to ever do it and he still finds a way to make a play or two here and there and shows up in some clutch moments, but he’s not the same guy right now.”
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce attend the Males’s Singles Ultimate match between Taylor Fritz of the US and Jannik Sinner of Italy on Day Fourteen of the 2024 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle on September 08, 2024. (Photograph by Sarah Stier/Getty Photographs)
What Does the Future Maintain For Travis and Taylor?
So will Travis Kelce retire on the finish of the present NFL season? It appears extremely doubtless, particularly if he achieves his purpose of main the Chiefs to an unprecedented third-straight Tremendous Bowl victory.
Regardless of the case, even when Travis has misplaced a step, and his present woes show everlasting, it’s absurd in charge the decline on Taylor.
However sadly, it’s not an unusual take. Some deranged followers have even known as for Taylor to be banned from NFL video games.
Fortuitously, McShay doesn’t take issues that far. Actually, he acknowledges that there are a number of elements contributing to Travis’ lackluster season.
Travis Kelce celebrates with Taylor Swift after a 17-10 victory towards the Baltimore Ravens within the AFC Championship Sport at M&T Financial institution Stadium on January 28, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photograph by Patrick Smith/Getty Photographs)
“I don’t see the same explosiveness. I see him wearing down a little bit in games. It’s OK. He’ll work himself back into shape. It’s not the first guy ever who’s not quite in the elite shape that he was,” McShay mentioned.
“I think Kelce’s doing more commercials and things. He’s been at more events, doing more things socially,” he elaborated.
“It’s impossible to carry that schedule and still put in the same amount of time for football.”
In fact, Travis maintained a wildly hectic schedule final season, and the Chiefs gained the Tremendous Bowl.
So it’s potential that this McShay character merely doesn’t know what he’s speaking about.
