NEWSTravis Kelce Accused of Being 'Out of Shape' After 'Partying All Offseason' With Taylor Swift Amid Slow Start to 2024 NFL Season
Travis Kelce is facing criticism for his slow start to the 2024-2025 NFL season.
Can Travis Kelce "Shake It Off" or is his performance on the football field more than just a slow start?
Critics aren't happy with the way the Kansas City Chiefs tight end played during his team's first three games of the 2024-2025 NFL season, with many haters now pointing fingers toward his relationship with Taylor Swift as potential reasoning for his lack of impressive statistics.
Travis Kelce didn't score a touchdown within the first three games of the 2024-2025 NFL season.
During an appearance on the Monday, September 23, episode of "The Ryen Russillo Podcast," former ESPN analyst Todd McShay bluntly blamed Kelce's recent heightened fame and "jet-setting" lifestyle as the reason for the 34-year-old's apparently poor performances so far this season.
The sports analysts' comments came just one day after the "New Heights" podcast co-host recorded a mere four receptions for 30 yards during the Chiefs away game against the Atlanta Falcons, where Swift was notably not in attendance, on Sunday, September 22.
Critics are pointing to Travis Kelce's relationship with Taylor Swift as a reason for his apparently poor performance.
"Every show I watch, every pregame show, halftime show, postgame show, weekday show, every broadcast I watch for the last few weeks, it’s like, are we not allowed to say that he’s out of shape? That he’s been partying all offseason? He’s been jet-setting around with the most famous person probably in the entire world," McShay questioned of Kelce — who went public with his and Swift's romance in September 2023.
The television commentator then referenced Kelce's long weekend in New York City earlier this month, when he and the 14-time Grammy winner were photographed "drinking" and living it up at the U.S. Open following the Chiefs' Thursday Night Football game against the Baltimore Ravens on September 5.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had a fun-filled weekend in New York after the Chiefs' first game of the season on Thursday, September 5.
"I want you to take a picture from preseason 2022 and then take a picture preseason 2024, they’re barely the same human being," McShay alleged before disagreeing with defensive fans claiming Kelce has been double and triple teamed, causing it to be more difficult for him to get the ball.
"Here’s the thing, bottom line with Kelce: The coverage and the respect he gets is the same, the athlete is not," the 47-year-old declared.
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While McShay was candid when criticizing Kelce, he doesn't doubt the NFL star's ability to turn his season around.
"Now, is he going to work himself into shape during the season? Yeah, I’m sure he will," McShay predicted. "He’s an unbelievable competitor, he’s one of the best to ever do it and he still finds a way to make a play or two here and there and shows up in some clutch moments, but he’s not the same guy right now."
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce went public with their relationship in September 2023.
In the meantime, however, McShay admitted, "I don’t see the same explosiveness, I see him wearing down a little bit in games, it’s OK, he’ll work himself back into shape, it’s not the first guy ever whose not quite in the elite shape that he was."
The sports commentator made a point to note he is "not blaming" Swift, 34, for Kelce's unimpressive numbers this season.
"I think Kelce’s doing more commercials and things, he’s been at more events, doing more things socially," he mentioned. "It’s impossible to carry that schedule and still put in the same amount of time for football."
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So far, Kelce has had a total of eight receptions for 69 yards within the first three games of the season and has yet to score a touchdown, which is a drastic different in comparison to his 17 receptions for 155 yards and two touchdowns at this point last year.
In 2022, the famous athlete recorded 17 catches for 230 yards and two touchdowns.
