"I thought I was going to play in college baseball": When Travis Kelce shared his love for other sports apart from football at college
Before Travis Kelce became a big name in the NFL coming out of the University of Cincinnati's football program, he attended Cleveland Heights High School in Ohio. There he used to play football, basketball and baseball.
During an interview with Chris Stonebraker of MaxPreps at the Gatorade Athlete of the Year awards ceremony in September 2018, Kelce revealed how one of his friends brought the idea of him playing baseball during the spring semester, the time when basketball and football are in rest mode.
"I didn’t know what I really wanted to do in the spring semester, and one of my best friends, Harry Clark, came up to me and said, 'Hey man, you're not doing anything, why don't you play baseball?'" Kelce said (3:20 onwards). "I thought, 'I’m literally not doing anything, I have to finish out the school year, so why not go ahead and play baseball?' I hadn’t played my first three years, just a little bit my junior year.
"Sure enough, it was the only sport I was all-state in, out of football and basketball, which I thought I was going to play in college baseball."
Baseball was Travis Kelce's "Plan B" if football didn't work out
During the "New Heights Show" on June 12, Travis Kelce's brother Jason asked the Kansas City Chiefs tight end if he ever considered pursuing baseball, given he used to play in high school.
“It was always something in the back of my mind that I knew, like, I had a chance at if I wanted to give it a run,” Travis said. “You know, I think my size and my athleticism, as well as the fact that I could throw a baseball."
Travis Kelce recalled a time when he thought about playing college baseball after being suspended from Cincinnati's football program in 2010 as he tested positive for marijuana.
“I could track a baseball in the outfield,” Kelce said. “Like, I felt like I would I would always get a chance. So it was always in the back of my mind that I had that as a plan B, which is why I tried to, you know, play in 2010 when I got kicked out of school or when I got kicked off the team for a little bit. I was always just kinda keeping that alive in a sense.”
However, Travis Kelce said he didn't find the same love in the sport as he had for football. Well, there's no saying he would have turned out if he opted for baseball. Safe to say, he made a wise choice continuing his football career, as he would end up winning three Super Bowls in 2020, 2023 and 2024.