In the sixth round of the 2011 NFL Draft, Jason Kelce received a call from the Eagles. The voice on the other end was head coach Andy Reid, who greeted him with, “Hey Jason… You ready to be an Eagle?” Jason enthusiastically responded, “Hell yeah! I’m ready to be an Eagle!” Reid then playfully tested Jason’s focus by outlining a sequence of calls he would receive and quizzing him on the order. Caught off guard, Jason admitted he forgot.
To which Reid replied, “I just wanted to see how focused you are because you’re going to be playing for 75,000 people, so you gotta keep your composure under pressure.” Classy Reid. Fast forward a couple of years, and now Reid was the HC of the Chiefs. But when it was time to draft Travis Kelce… well, let’s just say the situation was different. The reason?
Well, when Travis first got the call, his phone rang from a Missouri area code, and he feared it was the St. Louis Rams calling. To his relief, it was Andy Reid. This time, Reid greeted Travis with, “Hey, it’s Andy Reid,” to which Travis responded, “Aw man, life just got better!” But if you’re thinking that it was as simple as it sounds, think again.
Last year, Coach Reid dropped by an episode of the Kelce brothers’ New Height Podcast, where he talked about his first meeting with Travis. And yeah, it was the time when Travis was playing for the Cincinnati Bearcats against Temple. “Yeah, this guy (Travis) I saw play against Temple,” Reid recalled while addressing Trav’s cocky behavior. “And my son kept telling me, this tight end is unbelievable. Kelce’s brother is like incredible, you know, he’s 265 pounds. He’s a beast.”
“Then I get him; he was like 240 (Reid joked). But then game was over. They just destroyed Temple. I come over to the locker room, he comes walking be-boppin’ out and just giving me the business like we’re long-lost friends. And deep down, I’m going, ‘If I get my hands on that son of a buck, I’m gonna rip his heart,’ but I play along with it.” Well, the head coach later continued that even though Trav’s demeanor was different than Jason’s, the Chiefs still drafted him in the 2013 NFL draft.
But whatever happened later is well-documented. Reid confessed that those rumors of Kelce’s cocky behavior during the first five years with the team were “pretty close.” And in the last five years? Well, they’ve been awesome. But does that mean Travis will stop testing his head coach’s patience? Absolutely not.
Remember the Christmas Day game against the Raiders back in the 2023 season. Yeah, the one where Travis slammed his helmet on the ground after a tough loss. Reid told the equipment manager to hold off on giving Kelce his helmet back, then had a quick word with him before finally sending him back out on the field. But let’s be real—things have worked out pretty well for Travis under Andy Reid’s leadership. After all, the guy is one of the best TEs in the league.
Meanwhile, when it comes to Jason Kelce, Reid has a different opinion.
Andy Reid believes drafting Jason Kelce was an easy decision
By now, it’s pretty safe to say—if there’s one guy who knows the Kelce brothers inside out, it’s Andy Reid. Why? Well, for starters, he drafted both of them just two years apart. And more than that, he coached them both early in their careers, way before Jason and Travis became household names in the league.
But what really made those draft decisions different was their vibe. When it came to Travis, Reid had his doubts—the man had been suspended in college, and there were legit concerns whether he was mature enough. Jason though? That one was easy. Tough, smart, and ready to go. No drama—just football.
So, when Reid appeared on the New Heights Podcast last year, Jason couldn’t hold himself back from asking his former coach what led him to draft him in the 2011 NFL draft. “Yours was really easy,” Reid started. “You’re a great player, a little bit undersized, you had tremendous toughness, speed, you were smart, dirty, tough. That was an easy decision. You and we needed a center that you fit in. We just got rid of all that linebacker stuff, and gave you to Howard Mudd and cut you loose.”
So, when you stack it up—no character concerns, high football IQ, pure toughness, and a perfect scheme fit—it’s no surprise Reid called drafting Jason Kelce a no-brainer. Travis? Super talented, but he needed a little extra faith… and probably a leash at first. But at the end of the day, it’s the career of Jason and Travis that actually matters. While Jason has already called it a career and is a future Hall of Famer, Travis is out there stretching the field for the Chiefs’ offense every Sunday.
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