Travis Kelce Was Fighting a "Pretty Big Illness" Before the Chiefs' Super Bowl Loss

As Kansas City fans process the Chiefs’ Super Bowl defeat, the Chiefs General Manager hinted that Travis Kelce might not have been competing at the best of his abilities. During the Tuesday, February 26 episode of NFL podcast "The Insiders,'" Brett Veach revealed that Kelce was “battling a pretty big illness” before the February 9 Super Bowl game, which saw the Chiefs lose 22 to 40 to the Philadelphia Eagles

“We’re never gonna make excuses and talk about it, but I mean, yeah, he was battling with a pretty big illness there before the Super Bowl,” he told Tom Pelissero about Kelce’s alleged health struggles. The Chiefs GM didn’t specify exactly what the Chiefs tight end was sick with (and Travis was spotted on a double date with Taylor Swift as well as Patrick and Brittany Mahomes just days before the big game), but he noted that he wasn’t “making excuses” for the game’s final score and that Kelce being in full health probably wouldn’t have changed the Super Bowl’s outcome.

“The way the Eagles played, it wouldn’t have made a difference,” he clarified, adding, “we didn’t have the end to our season that we hoped for.”

Kelce appeared to echo these sentiments in a February 12 "New Heights" podcast episode as he told older brother Jason that the team “couldn’t find a lick of momentum”–something that he couldn’t help but “put a lot of that" on himself. “I’m kicking myself for some of the tiny, tiny decisions I made on the field,” Travis admitted. “I wasn’t the best leader that I could be in motivating my guys and keeping my guys calm, cool and collected.”

As for next season, he also played coy when addressing retirement speculation, sharing, “I know everybody wants to know whether or not I'm playing next year, and right now, I'm just kicking everything down the road. I'm not making any crazy decisions.”

While it’s unknown whether Kelce will be back at the Chiefs for the next NFL season with Taylor Swift cheering him on in the VIP suite, Veach said he expected the athlete to be wearing his “87” jersey again come September. “I think so,” he told Pelissero when asked about Kelce’s retirement plans. “We anticipate Travis being back. We’re excited to have Travis back.”

Read the original article on InStyle