The Kansas City Chiefs are not the party with the most to lose if Travis Kelce retires — he is incredibly valuable to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Head coach Andy Reid would be devastated to see the three-time Super Bowl champion depart.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes coped with the loss of Tyreek Hill just fine but Kelce is his safety blanket and a trusted presence — tight ends like him are hard to come by.
The 35-year-old is weighing up whether his mind and body can take another gruelling season.
Goodell will be monitoring the situation closely.
As much value as he provides on the field, Kelce is now worth far more off it.
Thanks to his relationship with pop megastar Taylor Swift, the league has been exposed to a huge potential fanbase and saw spikes in merchandise and ticket sales — particularly with female fans.
To a financially-minded executive like Goodell, that means one thing. Money.
MarketWatch cites data from Apex Marketing which claims that Swift has generated almost a billion dollars in value for the NFL.
Its brand value metric measures value across all social media, TV, radio, digital news, and print news and came up with a total of $992,361,912.
“The ‘Swift Effect’ and the corresponding media exposure continued for the NFL and the Chiefs prior to the start of the 2024 NFL season,” said Apex’s Eric Smallwood.
“The media blitz continued as the Chiefs kept winning games and were featured on national broadcasts, leading into the playoffs and now the Super Bowl.
“Taylor was visible at games, and those appearances garnered media attention from sports-media outlets and those entertainment media outlets not normally covering the NFL.”
According to the latest signals from within the Chiefs’ organization, Goodell could be in luck.
“We did have a chance to talk before they left,” Reid said at the scouting combine on Tuesday. “That’s up to Travis.
“At this point, it’s, ‘Get out of town.’ They’ve played a lot of football here. So, ‘Step back, then we’ll talk.’”
General manager Brett Veach was bullish on Kelce’s potential return.
“He was fired up about being here,” Veach said. “He has one more year under contract.
“We left it at he’d be back and we’re excited to have him back.”
Reports suggested the Chiefs had tabled a March 14 deadline for a decision with Kelce due a bonus of around $11 million next month.
But Veach insists the team is being patient.
“As far as I’m concerned, there is no deadline,” he added.
Kelce did not have his best game at the Super Bowl and Veach raised the possibility that there were other factors in play.
“Listen, we’re never going to make excuses but he was battling through a pretty big illness there,” he revealed.
Even fully fit, it is unlikely if Kelce could have stopped the rampant Philadelphia Eagles defensive line that dominated the Chiefs.
But Goodell doesn’t need the superstar to win rings, he just needs him on the field with Swift cheering from the sidelines.
Kelce’s cap hit is set to be $19.8 million next season — a bargain given his value to his team and league as a whole.
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