© Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports © Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports © Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
(Kansas City, MO) – Coming off the recently-completed NFL Scouting Combine, prospect evaluation and meetings between teams and potential draftees are fresh on the mind.
But more than 10 years ago, as teams were doing their due diligence ahead of the 2013 NFL Draft, Travis Kelce was among the players emerging from college. Of course, at that time his professional football future was uncertain. No one knew for sure he’d craft the Hall of Fame career that has led many to call him among, if not the best TE in history.
Yet Kelce had some red flags entering that draft. He’d previously been suspended for an entire season at the University of Cincinnati, after testing positive for marijuana ahead of the team’s Sugar Bowl appearance in 2010. And that suspension was a big topic of discussion when Kelce met with the Dallas Cowboys’ front office. A clip making the round on social media shows Kelce explaining some “bad interviews” at the combine back then.
Speaking on the “New Heights Podcast” with his recently-retired brother Jason Kelce, Travis said “At the combine, I had some bad interviews. The [Dallas] Cowboys, they were kind of pressing me about having this red flag of missing a year.”
Kelce’s attempt to reroute the conversation led to a quick finish for the meeting. Kelce said “it ended fast” after he more or less said, “’If you guys think I’m gonna be that kind of guy, or you’re questioning if I’m still that person after everything that I’ve battled through to get to where I am now from missing a season, then you guys (should) probably go somewhere else and pick somebody else.'”
That’s exactly what the Cowboys did, selecting Gavin Escobar with the 47th overall pick. Kansas City took Kelce with the 63rd pick – the first pick in the third round. Escobar never panned out into a top NFL player, while Kelce is Canton-bound and also a pop culture star while dating singer Taylor Swift.
Somewhere, a parent is telling their kid: see, this is what happens when you smoke marijuana! Well… wait, er. That’s not exactly the message on this one. But all’s well that ends well for Kelce, and Chiefs Kingdom. Plus, Kelce apparently never truly kicked the habit – and he’s doing pretty well.
