Jason and Travis Kelce grew up eating dinners together, playing with the family dog in their yard, and — like many siblings — getting into tussles. But in February, the pair faced off against each other on a much bigger scale: on opposing teams in the 2023 Super Bowl, becoming the first sibling duo to ever do so. Travis’s team, the Kansas City Chiefs, wound up taking home the trophy, though the game was a close one.
Ahead of the game, their mother, Donna Kelce, said they’d both make formidable opponents. “I just don’t know,” she said when asked who she thought would win the Feb. 12 game in a Time interview published on Feb. 9. “If they were playing another team, I would say each of them were. It’s the team that makes the least amount of mistakes. You just have to wait on that one.”
Jason, 35, is a center for the Philadelphia Eagles, while his brother, 33-year-old Travis, is a tight end for the Chiefs. Despite being on opposing teams, before the game kicked off, the duo couldn’t help but share a sweet on-the-field hug, showing that some brotherly feelings remained even ahead of the year’s biggest competition in football.
More recently, the siblings have been in the news again for a different reason: Travis has been linked to Taylor Swift. The pair appeared to first cross paths when Travis attended one of Swift’s concerts in Kansas City in July, and sources later told The Messenger that they’d been hanging out. Jason added fuel to the fire when he quipped that the dating rumors were “100 percent true” in an interview with Philadelphia radio show 94WIP, though later clarified that he was joking. Then, Swift was spotted at a Chiefs game on Sept. 24, adding more fuel to already rampant dating rumors.
Ahead, learn more about Travis and Jason’s upbringing, collaborations, and more.
Where Did Jason and Travis Kelce Grow Up?
Travis and Jason spent their childhoods in Cleveland Heights, OH. Their father, Ed Kelce, worked as a representative in the steel industry, per Sportscasting, while their mom was a banking executive. The boys grew up playing tons of sports, including lacrosse and hockey, and also enjoyed time with their family dog, Belle. They were also voracious eaters, unsurprisingly, and “the refrigerator was always packed, but it didn’t last more than a day or so,” Donna said before the “NFL Honors” show on Feb. 9. “Whole chickens, they would eat lots of pork, ribs. I’d have leftovers in the refrigerator and it never lasted past the day.”
Both boys went on to play college football at the University of Cincinnati before being drafted by the NFL. Donna and Ed divorced after 25 years of marriage shortly following the boys’ college graduations, according to Hello. The family remains close, though, and today, Ed lives a mile away from Jason and his wife. Both parents attended the Super Bowl.
Were Jason and Travis Kelce Always Competitive?
The brothers have always loved to win — particularly when playing against each other. “Everything was a competition. It was a competition to see who could get to the table first, who could get to the front seat of the car — this is just typical sibling rivalry. They egged each other on,” Donna said in a February interview on “Today.” “Travis was always trying to get at his older brother to pay attention to him, so there were a lot of fights. That’s just the way boys are.”
Donna also detailed her sons’ intense sibling rivalry several years earlier. “There were a lot of fights,” she said in a 2020 interview with Sports Illustrated. “There were a lot of punches thrown. It all just stemmed from somebody being better than the other one, and the other one not being able to deal with it.”
Do Jason and Travis Kelce Have a Podcast Together?
The brothers may be opponents on the field, but they seem to work well together, even collaborating on their podcast, “New Heights With Jason and Travis Kelce.” The weekly podcast shares insights into the NFL and their own lives. They sat down with their parents in a Feb. 6 episode, and their dad shared stories about coaching the boys as they grew up, while their mom, once again, insisted she wasn’t rooting for one team over the other.
The brothers also discussed Swift’s appearance at Travis’s game in a Sept. 27 episode of their podcast. “Shout out to Taylor for coming through and seeing me rock the stage,” Travis said during it.
Is Jason Kelce Married, and Is Travis Kelce Single?
Jason is married to Kylie McDevitt, and the pair tied the knot in 2018. They have three daughters — Wyatt Elizabeth, who was born on Oct. 2, 2019; Elliotte Ray, born on March 4, 2021; and Bennett Llewellyn, who was born on Feb. 23, just a little over a week after the Super Bowl.
Ahead of the game, while she was still pregnant, McDevitt joked that she was going to bring her ob-gyn to the game because her due date was so soon. “That could be a super Kelce Bowl,” Jason joked in a February episode of “New Heights.” “If she has a baby in the stadium, it’s officially scripted.”
Meanwhile, before he was linked to Swift, Travis was in an on-and-off relationship with on-air reporter Kayla Nicole beginning in 2017, according to People, though the pair are no longer together. “I’m in the free market right now. I’m out there just enjoying life, focused on my profession,” Travis said in a January episode of the “Pivot” podcast.
Have Jason and Travis Kelce Both Won a Super Bowl?
Jason was playing for the Eagles in 2018 when the team beat the New England Patriots. Meanwhile, Travis won in 2020 when the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers and again this year against the Eagles. According to Donna, the fact that they’d both won before took some pressure off of their 2023 Super Bowl game. “This one will be pure joy, knowing they made it and that one of their dreams came true,” she told Time before the game.
Apparently, she added, the brothers actually always dreamed of playing on the same team in a Super Bowl. Their original goal was to “play with each other, on the same team, and it would be the Browns. That’s what they always talked about,” Donna shared. “But that didn’t happen and it turned out well for both of them.”
Ahead, check out some photos of the brothers then and now.
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