"Kelce" says something about the brutality and brotherhood of playing pro football
Also the importance of grabbing and holding onto the fame that feeds and sustains you.
Kelce, a documentary about Jason Kelce’s purported final year of playing pro football is streaming on Prime.
Grade: B+ (Gets a bit deeper into the lives of Jason and Travis Kelce and their families. High marks for shining a light on the “after life” reality for pro ballers. Jason, as a subject is compelling enough, making this worthwhile.)
The Kelce brothers are having a moment in the U.S. I think we can all agree.
For those of you who don’t know who these guys are, let me explain cause it would appear you are sleeping under a rock or in a cave or just not all that concerned with football in America (can’t blame you), meatheads (well, kinda but that’s also reductive), or Taylor Swift. I really can’t abide the last one here though so hear me out.
But Let’s Be Kind & Rewind
For everyone who reads this, but especially for Sean Hayes’ sister Tracey who I know reads my posts ardently (not yet, but only because she doesn’t know about them):
Jason and Travis Kelce are two brothers who play for professional football teams [in the National Football League, or NFL] and whose teams, Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City (KC) Chiefs, are ranked at the top of the 32 NFL teams.
They squared off in the Super Bowl last year and KC won. It was a big deal because as we learn in the documentary Kelce, Jason is getting on in professional sports’ years and was considering 2022-2023 to be his final season.
As an aside, per Wikipedia, Jason is a Super Bowl champion (2018), six-time Pro Bowl selection, and five-time first-team All-Pro selection. And if you think that’s a mouthful of achievement, his little brother Travis won Super Bowls LIV and LVII and is considered one of the greatest tight ends of all time. He holds the NFL record for most consecutive and most overall seasons with 1,000 yards receiving by a tight end. Yeah I kinda got lost in the last sentence too, but it’s a big deal so stick with me.
Life after the NFL
The most recent published data supporting post-NFL life outlook for players I could find on Google is ~2016 and here’s where it’s at:
The average NFL career lasts 3.3 years, according to the NFL Players' Association; 78 percent of players go broke within three years of retirement and 15.7 percent file for bankruptcy within 12 years of leaving the league, according to a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Now, the Kelce brothers aren’t most NFL players. As of 2023, Jason Kelce's net worth stands at an impressive $40 million, according to Pro Football Network. Travis banks about $12.3 Million a game. They both just launched a second season of a #1 sports podcast with the most ridiculous name btw, called “New Heights” that has them being paid a healthy salary. They are media moguls. That isn’t the norm.
The norm is that 78% of players go broke within 3 years of retirement at least as of data published 7 years ago.
has a pretty in depth post about the origins of “New Heights” and the Kelce’s media empire so I’ll let you read more there. It’s good stuff.
And Now Back to the Show
The ability to think about what’s coming next, after football, is really the subject of the Prime documentary, Kelce, which is a worthwhile watch for both fans of football, or these brothers, or anyone questioning their next life chapter. It’s always better to think about what’s next when you’re already comfortable in the present. I appreciated that Jason Kelce has a group of retired NFL buddies from different stages of life who all meet and talk about the realities of post-pro ball. It was a beautiful, healthy wondrous thing to behold.
Let’s be real for a second. Jason Kelce is 35 and has access to a rolodex of business contacts and wealth generating/building opportunities for his future, not to mention a shit-ton of money that he’s earned while having his body endure a pretty bad beating for the last 20+ years. He’s concerned about his long term brain health. His wife is concerned that if he plays more football he won’t be able to play on the floor with this kids. No joke. He has trouble walking. That’s something most folks aren’t having to contend with on a daily basis, social media jokes aside.
Acknowledging both the privilege and the hard work, Kelce frames what it is to have to balance internal motivation with external pressures, the desire to forge a new identity when you’ve only been compensated for being really damn good at the one thing, and playing a bunch of roles (husband, dad, teammate, son, brother, etc.) while living with an abundance of creature comforts.
Jason expresses his existential dilemma as he ponders returning for the 2023-2024 season:
“Every logical thing is telling me I should stop playing football,” he says. Again, he knows the risks he’s taking, for a game. But for him, it’s about the feeling he gets fighting every day. To have to constantly prove your worth is hard, but it keeps you alive, he says, holding back tears. That’s what he’s afraid to be without.
“I have no doubt I can be a loving father. I have no doubt that I can be successful. But where am I gonna get that?” he asks. “Where am I gonna be the best in the world at what I f***in’ do and not because of anything other than I go out there and earned it?”
The likability factor of Jason and his entire family, including his wife, Kylie and their 2 toddler girls + one girl born at the end of the documentary timeline, is high. They emit authenticity and they are smart and funny in a way that maybe the Kardashians did back in 2007. They reveal certain intimate challenges of being married, sharing the parental and partner workload, wanting to secure a long future together in good physical and mental health and speak honest truths.
The parts of the film I loved were the ones that focused on family - the vulnerability of Jason’s marriage and its funny and hard moments, the beauty in being a big brother and someone who looks out for his little, sexy bro Travis and guides him wisely but also knows when to poke fun, and ultimately someone who is trying to figure out if he really wants to do cattle raising for the rest of his life and if not, then what? Yes, we’ve all had analogous work moments like this to contend with. Myself, not perhaps as agrarian in focus but I’ll put that down to body size, frame and physical strength.
I mean the ultimate test of a familial bond and sibling relationship is probably competing against one another, and in something as exceptional as the Super Bowl so this was definitely a climactic point in the film. Jason’s daughter stole the moment by speaking truth to at least what 50% of us were thinking:
Trigger Warning: Lots of f-bombs in this documentary, especially in Jason’s pre-Super Bowl inspirational talk with the team which apparently is available via web series called Unscripted about the Philadelphia Eagles’ road to redemption.
Taylor Swift is Bringing It to the Games
The NFL buzz of the past month has been the romance brewing between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, who has brought back the popularity of the 1980s pornstache with a vengeance and per a recent episode of “New Heights” is in no hurry to remove it.
Also, this just in as of SNF’s NY Jets/KC Chiefs game. It’s more subtle than Travis making Taylor a bracelet with his phone number on it and handing it to her after an Eras concert, but definitely warrants some serious analysis on whether Rodgers is making a play for someone here.
I can’t be sure if he was directly looking at Taylor Swift, but…
In another box on the other side of the NY Jets stadium, a smattering of celebrities, from Blake Lively, her +1 Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Brittany Mahomes and others pics had GOT’s Sophie Turner and pop star and former Disney sensation Sabrina Carpenter, flanked Taylor Swift as she cheered on her boyfriend.
For those of you both repulsed and inspired by the love match here (I myself vacillate as often as the weather changes in New England in the past month) perhaps it’s time to embrace Taylor’s “F*ck it” era. After all, a woman should be able to have her gushers + fruit roll-ups and not be judged but celebrated:
Restackable Audible from
:Currently, the inside of my brain is just a highlight reel of Taylor watching Travis score a touchdown. I woke up thinking, “I hope she writes a song about Andy Reid’s clock management.” It is too much for my brain, I am a broken woman, someone help me.
Tracey: Andy Reid is the coach of the KC Chiefs. In an odd connection between Kelces, he used to be the Eagles coach for a long time.
And then there’s this: “There was nearly a 400% spike in Travis Kelce jersey sales following last Sunday's game, as Chiefs Kingdom has welcomed Swifties with open arms.”
Yes, Taylor is good for business. Just ask Mark Cuban who has an open call out to his entire Dallas Mavericks roster to start slipping into TS’s DMs pronto. I think he’s kidding? Then again I never know with Cuban. He’s always half smirking/half smiling.
The Celebrity Appeal of Nonna Donna
Donna Kelce, mom extraordinaire to Travis and Jason is everywhere. She literally showed up at both of her sons’ games on Sunday - Philly for a 1pm Eagles game watching Jason alongside Jake from State Farm and then hugged it out with Travis’ rumored girlfriend, Swift, at the evening Jets game played in NJ. And check out her lovely swag merch of a hat, advertising in high fidelity her sons’ pod.
Happy for the nachat [Yiddish for “joy”] of this new celebrity. It’s like when you think about all the parents that have to schlep their kids to sports and other extra-curriculars and the hours they spend in the emotional and physical investing, you just want to give this woman a throne. She’s living her best life, reaching yes, new heights.
Meanwhile over at the Buffalo Bills, Josh Allen has been low key dating another celeb and part of Taylor Swift’s 2016ish girl squad at least since the Summer, Hailee Steinfeld and no one really talks about this. What gives? Steinfeld, I should point out also hangs out with Allen’s mom. Thoughts?
