The long offseason wait is finally over and football fans can rejoice.
While that won’t officially be true for the NFL until tomorrow night’s opening game, a new season for Jason and Travis Kelce’s popular ‘New Heights’ podcast kicked off Wednesday morning.
With a new distribution deal (worth a reported $100 million over three years) with Amazon’s Wondery in hand, the Kelces followed their familiar formula of brotherly banter, mixed in with plenty of NFL discussion for 83 minutes ‒ the first 13 of which were taken up by sponsorship announcements, product endorsements and upcoming appearances.
When they finally got down to talking football, Travis Kelce described the mindset of his Kansas City Chiefs as they begin their quest for an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl title.
‘You don’t get to the Super Bowl by thinking about winning the Super Bowl, you get to the Super Bowl by slowly creating this routine of success ‒ week in, week out,’ the four-time All-Pro tight end said.
PLAY TO WIN $5K: USA TODAY’s Pro Football Survivor Pool is free to enter. Sign up now!
‘We know that it’s a process that you have to go through. You can’t peak too soon. You can’t look that far in advance and just assume that you’re going to be there.’
As the reigning Super Bowl champs, Kelce and the Chiefs will host the NFL’s prime-time season-opener Thursday night against the Baltimore Ravens.
The game will be a rematch of last year’s AFC championship, which the Chiefs won 17-10 in Baltimore.
Travis Kelce gets shout-out from LeBron James
Among the topics the Kelce brothers discussed Wednesday was a recent interview with NBA superstar LeBron James, in which the one-time football-playing tight end picked his ‘Mount Rushmore’ of NFL players at the position.
His first selection: Travis Kelce.
Rounding out the list, James tabbed Kellen Winslow, Shannon Sharpe and Tony Gonzalez ‒ before realizing he left out Rob Gronkowski. (So Gonzalez had to take a seat on the bench.)
‘I feel like the guys that have played before me helped make the league,’ Travis commented, ‘so that I could have the success I’ve had.’
Travis Kelce highlights new teammates
The Chiefs have a few new faces on this year’s roster, so Jason asked Travis about some of them.
- On rookie WR Xavier Worthy: ‘He’s intelligent … he can see things and react to it … and on top of that he has absolute speed that is unworldly.’
- On undrafted FB Carson Steele: ‘I think he’s a little bit more than a fullback. He’s athletic and he can do some things with the ball in his hand. On top of that, he’s a big special teams guy. A whatever-you-need-me-to-do-coach kind of guy.’
- On veteran WR Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown, who’s currently out with a shoulder injury: ‘He’s excited to be able to play with Pat Mahomes in this offense … He’ll be an asset for him when he gets back out there.’
Travis Kelce, new thoroughbred racehorse owner
Over the offseason, Kelce joined his friends the Zoldan family, owners of Phantom Fireworks, in purchasing a major share of a 3-year-old gelding by the name of Swift Delivery.
‘I had one of the best times ever at the (Kentucky) Derby this year,’ he said. ‘I got on board because it was fun and I could team up with a good friend of mine.’
As many people have pointed out, it also didn’t hurt to have the horse share a name with his girlfriend, Taylor Swift.
Jason Kelce offers outsider’s view of Philadelphia Eagles
After 13 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, Jason Kelce announced his retirement from the NFL this past March.
However, he still maintains strong ties to his former team.
‘I think they’re going to be really good. I think Jalen Hurts is going to have a bounce-back year,’ he said, in a nod to what was a mostly successful 11-6 season. However, the team faded badly down the stretch, losing five of their last gix games and losing badly in the first round of the playoffs.
‘Last year, there was a lot in place after losing the previous coordinators in Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon. And for whatever reason, it didn’t work,’ Kelce said.
The Eagles open their season in Brazil on Friday night against the Green Bay Packers.
Jason Kelce will still get his football fix this season as an analyst on ESPN’s Monday Night Football pregame show.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.