Travis Kelce Only Cares About 1 Ring

Travis Kelce may or may not have a wedding ring in his future. At least for now, there’s only one type of ring that matters in his world. And in the Chiefs’ galaxy, it’s also the only ring that will qualify 2025 as a successful season.

“I’m only interested in Super Bowl rings,” Kelce said Wednesday after the organization distributed rings to commemorate Kansas City’s 32-29 win over the Bills in the 2024 conference title game. “I know what the AFC Championship means to this organization and the family, and the 15 wins and everything is something special, but I’ll let everybody else be happy because last year wasn’t a success for me. I’m motivated to make sure that we get the other ring this year.”

The other ring won’t be easy, history says, because the Super Bowl hangover is real. In 30 of the prior 31 NFL seasons, only one team that lost a Super Bowl returned to the big game the following season (1994-2024): the 2018 New England Patriots.

Those Bill Belichick-Tom Brady Patriots were the first Super Bowl losers to return since the Buffalo Bills lost four straight Super Bowls from 1990-93. That New England club also was one of only three teams to win a Super Bowl after losing it the year before, joining the 17-0 Miami Dolphins in 1972 and the Dallas Cowboys in 1971.

In recent history, three of the last nine Super Bowl-losing teams finished last in their divisions (San Francisco in 2020 and 2024, and Carolina in 2016). The 2019 Los Angeles Rams also missed the playoffs in 2020. And of those five teams that followed Super Bowl losses with postseason berths, only the Bengals in 2022, the Chiefs in 2021 and the Patriots in 2018 even made their conference title games.

Philadelphia, which narrowly lost to Kansas City in Super Bowl LVII to end the 2022 campaign, rebounded to win 10 of its first 11 in 2023. Then, the Eagles collapsed, losing six of their last seven, including a season-ending, 32-9 loss at Tampa Bay in the first round of the playoffs.

The Chiefs, however, have experience with Super Bowl hangovers. The offensive-line issues that betrayed them in their 40-22 loss to Philadelphia in February paralleled many of the same issues that led to their last Super Bowl loss in the 2020 season.

And, no offense to the Hunt Family that signs Kelce’s paychecks and earned the right to have its name permanently affixed on the AFC championship trophy, Kelce and the Chiefs have no reason to view anything less than another Super Bowl ring as successful.

After all, the Hunt Family also coined the moniker Super Bowl.

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