Unlike most athletes who’ve hosted Saturday Night Live, Travis Kelce’s prospects didn’t start the night he won the Super Bowl. The star tight end of the Kansas City Chiefs had been trying to land the gig for years and was even turned down in 2021 when the Chiefs lost the big game, according to a new profile in Vanity Fair. Kelce kept at it, though, even crashing Studio 8H in the middle of the last NFL season, the night Jack Harlow hosted. “I just said, You know what? I’m not doing anything, I’ll just get up and go,” said Kelce, who was visiting his brother, Jason, in Philadelphia. At the after-party that night, he even got to chat up show head Lorne Michaels — and turn him into a Chiefs fan. “I thought he’d be good,” Michaels said. “And I kinda hoped they’d win the Super Bowl.” Just weeks after the Chiefs did win in February, Kelce hit the SNL stage. He even earned a rave from Michaels himself afterward, who said “he killed it” and that he ranks “near the top” of the show’s athlete hosts.
As for what’s next when Kelce, 33, decides to leave the NFL? Probably not more Catching Kelce. He “could bring the juice” as a color analyst for games, he said. He might want to host a game show. (Who among us?) And after SNL, he’s interested in getting back in front of the camera. Kelce plans to stay out his contract with the Chiefs through 2025 but didn’t say much about after that. “I don’t know if what I want to do has really been done yet,” he said.
