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Football is an emotional sport by nature, and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has benefitted from carrying himself with a certain level of passion. But, this was not always a guarantee.
The three-time Super Bowl champion recently opened up about his powerful interview with former Cleveland Browns head coach Rob Chudzinski prior to the 2013 NFL Draft.
“Kelce is famously bad at hiding his emotions,” Sean Manning of GQ Sports wrote.
“One story he tells me is of when he was 23 years old, preparing for his NFL draft, and had the opportunity to meet with Rob Chudzinski, then head coach of the Cleveland Browns, the team the Kelce brothers zealously rooted for growing up: “I cried in Chud’s office and said, ‘I will fucking die for this city!’ ” Kelce tells me. “I literally was in tears. I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m getting emotional. I grew up down the street. I would fucking do anything to play for the Cleveland Browns.’ He looked at me like I was insane. I don’t think he’d ever had somebody just pour out their emotions.””
“The Browns passed on Kelce. So did every other team until the third round of the 2013 draft, when he was selected by the Chiefs, where ultimately Kelce turned out to be a perfect complement to the incoming future MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes. On the other end of so many of Mahomes’s scrappy schoolyard plays, there was Kelce, improbably open, commemorating a completion with a wider array of dance moves than a junior high mixer. “When I was younger in the league,” he says, “I used to have some of the older players come up to me and be like, ‘Man, you celebrate after every fucking catch!’ I’m like, ‘I’m in the NFL, dude! I love this shit! I finally get the ball in my hands and I have millions of people watching me, this shit is exciting!’ ””
The Chiefs selected Travis Kelce 63rd overall during that fateful draft, and the Browns have only made two playoff appearances since then. The two teams will not face each other during the 2025 regular season, but it is still possible that they could meet in the postseason.
