The brothers reflected on Jason’s announcement on the latest episode of their ‘New Heights’ podcast
Travis Kelce is still emotional about his brother Jason’s retirement, just days after the elder Kelce announced his decision to hang up his cleats after 13 seasons in the NFL.
On the latest episode of their New Heights podcast, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end toasted his 36-year-old brother’s accomplishments — and reflected on what it will now be like as the only Kelce in the league.
“You’ve always been a step ahead of me in this game,” Travis, 34, told his brother. “It’s always been like I had that flotation device right there. To have you out of it, man it feels empty. It definitely feels like … it’s complete.”:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/travis-wipes-tears-030424-2b2d50c406664d629129e077b9e15e9a.jpg)
Left with their memories — which span childhood games to playing together at the University of Cincinnati to facing off in the NFL, and most notably in Super Bowl LVII — Travis summed up the years with his trademark mixture of humor and intensity.
“It was a fun-ass journey to watch,” he told Jason. “And like I said yesterday, I just appreciate you, man, showing me the way and bringing us all along on the journey, big guy.”
And as part of a small fraternity of brothers who have played in the NFL together, Travis marveled at “being the tag team of the National Football League.”
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As for Jason’s announcement on Monday — which his wife Kylie said in an interview he has been mulling for four years — Travis may have expected that his brother would hang up his cleats, but he gave Jason some space to do his “thing” and decide without his input.
“Yeah, I didn’t talk to you about it, I let you kind of do your thing and couldn’t have been more proud listening to you yesterday, and it’s been a lot of emotions,” Travis shared.
Whether Jason goes on to work with his old team, or move on to a traditional post-NFL career track as an analyst or coach, his younger brother by two years is looking up to him, and excited for his future.
“You’ve got the f—ing world in your palm right now, dude,” Travis said.