Travis Kelce says he’d only have played in Chiefs finale if he had contract incentive

The Chiefs’ Travis Kelce holds the NFL record for most consecutive seasons with 1,000 or more receiving yards for a tight end, but it was big news when that streak came to an end Sunday.

Kelce reached that milestone each year from 2016-’22, but fell just 16 yards short of 1K this season. Kelce missed the season opener because of an injury and he didn’t play in the season finale Sunday against the Chargers at SoFi Stadium.

On the latest episode of the “New Heights” podcast, Kelce talked about his decision to sit out.

“It never felt right to go out there chasing stats,” Kelce said. “I was kind of in and out of practice all week. For me to just jump in on game day and try and get 15, 16 yards, whatever it was, which is a lot harder than what you guys think it is.

“Even though I had a hundred and something against the Chargers earlier that year, it’s hard to do that twice against a team.”

Jason Kelce, the Philadelphia Eagles center/podcast co-host, noted the Chargers would have been focused on stopping his brother from getting those 16 yards.

For Travis Kelce, getting ready for the playoffs was much more important.

“It had nothing to really do with my health,” Travis Kelce said. “It had nothing to really do with whether or not I was gonna get injured. It was more so, it just didn’t feel right. And in my gut, it just didn’t feel like I should be playing the game that way.

“If I can, if I can get some rest going into next week, stay off the turf out there in LA and just avoid some hits, man, I was all for that to gear up for the playoffs here, man.”

Reaching 1,000 yards for an eighth straight season wasn’t motivation for him.

“It wasn’t even the record I didn’t get,” Travis Kelce said. “I don’t give a (care) about the record. It was a record that I had broken four times already. … It’s cool to know that but at the same time, I’ve never sat here and said, you know, if I don’t get one thousand yards, my season was a failure.

“I’ve always had it in my mind if I lose the Super Bowl, that’s a failure. I’ve always just kind of had it in the back of my mind that that’s how I work and it just didn’t feel right to try and go out there for 16 yards. I just thought I’d just bring the energy on the sideline, let my guys go out there and rock and sure enough they did.”

Kelce said his teammates came up to him all week at the Chiefs facility and encouraged him to extend his record. It didn’t sway him.

However, if he had a contract incentive like teammate Chris Jones reached Sunday, that would have been a different story.

“I’d have been out there, drooling, sweating my ass off out there every single play,” Kelce said with a laugh. “You couldn’t take me off the field.”