Travis Kelce's Next Sporting Endeavor Could Be Coming Together

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While every professional athlete is talented, Travis Kelce's skills are plain to see. The Kansas City Chiefs' star is one of the NFL's premier pass-catchers, and he does that with the added responsibilities that come with playing tight end. His resume isn't limited to the field, either. He's had his own reality show, appears in countless commercials and boasts a successful weekly podcast.

But now, it seems another sport could be entering the mix. Well, at least a cameo appearance.

On an episode of the aforementioned New Heights podcast, Kelce made reference to Chicago Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard, although the tight end struggled to pronounce his name. Well, one thing led to another, and the two could be hitting the ice together at some point in the future.

Travis Kelce Hockey
Travis Kelce #87 of the Kansas City Chiefs looks on before the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on December 03, 2023 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

Bedard Is Prepared to Teach Kelce Some Hockey

Given their competitive nature, many athletes are fans of other sports. Kelce is no exception to that norm.

On a November episode of his podcast, the tight end and his brother, Jason, attempted to build an NHL lineup out of NHL talent. While that discussion was interesting in its own right, two other nuggets emerged.

First, Travis struggled to pronounce Bedard's last name. And while he added some extra letters into the mix (he tried "Bednard" and "Bendnard") No. 87 did admit that he "[loves] watching that dude play."

Beyond that, the tight end also said that he'd be interested in suiting up as a goalie and stepping into net with the NHL squad. Rob Gronkowski, as Kelce pointed out, did that with the Tampa Bay Lightning, setting a precedent.

Well, the Blackhawks picked that up on social media, and now Bedard himself weighed in.

"I thought that was cool for sure," the rookie said of the shoutout. "Obviously one of the best football players in the world, so yeah, that's great."

But what about the idea of taking the ice together? While NHL players can play things safe in the public eye, the rookie seems game for a bit of fun.

"That'd be cool. Obviously he's a Chicago fan so that's pretty sweet," Bedard said. "You see guys like Gronkowski, and I think J.J. Watt went out with the team. That'd be cool. Maybe try to teach him how to play hockey a little bit."

Kelce Actually Has Some Hockey Experience

As you may have noticed, Bedard said that he'd teach Kelce how to play hockey. And while the tight end might not have NHL-level chops, he has hit the ice before.

In 2017, the Philadelphia Eagles' website ran a question-and-answer piece with Donna and Ed Kelce. There was mention of how the brothers played virtually every sport imaginable. Hockey, however, was one of the options that could have been a potential career path.

"I think they could have been as successful in hockey if we as parents were willing to pigeon-hole them to hockey. That is, have them play year-round hockey," Ed Kelce explained. "Move to Ontario when they were 14 so they could play in the Ontario League until they're ready to go to college. Nothing like that was ever going to happen. They were drawn more to football. I think they both could've made it in baseball. Of course, baseball's another sport when you're 13, 14 years old you better be playing it year-round if you had aspirations of playing it professionally. They were both very good at soccer one time. Then again soccer's another one of those sports when you reach another level, you're doing it year-round."

And when Travis' old tweets started to resurface, there was one that discussed his love for the ice game.

And as tends to happen, a brand (Bauer) picked up on that and stepped in with an offer.

So, Kelce has the love of the game accounted for. He's gotten responses from the Blackhawks and Connor Bedard. Bauer would take care of the gear.

Now, all we need is a time and a place (and an NFL contract that allows him to take the ice—Newsweek reached out to A&A Management via email to see if there was any language in Kelce's Chiefs deal that would prohibit such activity) and we could see No. 87 in the NHL net.

Or at least skating a bit during practice.

About the writer

Joe Kozlowski is the Newsweek Sports Team Lead based in New York. His focus is covering U.S. sports. He is especially passionate about parsing through sports trends and connecting the dots for his fellow fans. Joe joined Newsweek in 2023 from Sportscasting.com and had previously been published in VICE Sports, The New York Hockey Journal and SLAM, among other publications. He is a graduate of NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study and cut his teeth at NYU Local. You can get in touch with Joe by emailing j.kozlowski@newsweek.com. Languages: English.


Joe Kozlowski is the Newsweek Sports Team Lead based in New York. His focus is covering U.S. sports. He is especially passionate about ... Read more