Travis Kelce recalls how his marijuana use affected his NFL Draft

Originally posted on NFL on ClutchPoints
By Autumn Hawkins | Last updated May 1, 2025 12:09 AM ET

Travis Kelce was a third-round pick in 2013, taken No. 63 overall. But, there were issues that clouded around his draft.

Kelce played football for the University of Cincinnati before getting drafted but his marijuana suspension made NFL coaches reluctant to take a chance on Kelce. However, Andy Reid, who previously coached his brother Jason Kelce in Philadelphia, gave Travis a shot.

“The funny thing about Trav is that there was nothing outside of the injuries. I guess you had two things,” Jason said on their April 30 episode of the New Heights podcast. “You had a few injuries, and then you obviously had the marijuana thing stemming from your sophomore year.”

“You saying ‘marijuana’ makes it sound so more intense. Why does that word sound so intense?” Travis joked.

“You probably got drafted an entire round later than you should have,” Jason said. “I just think it’s funny sometimes looking back and, like, there are all these concerns about Travis Kelce and, like, everybody whoever knew you knew you were a great kid. You just had, like, a mess up with weed. Sorry. And then all of a sudden, like, teams aren’t picking you for it.”

The brothers pointed out that there is less of a taboo about smoking weed in the NFL which led to Travis speaking out about what they can do about it now.

“I just want everybody that drops in the draft for whatever character concerns, if it ever pans out, they should just do that exact same character concern,” Travis said. “Like, you should have just walked into signing your second deal with a blunt in your hand smoking it as a sign of the paper.”

He added, “I’m not condoning smoking weed, but unless you sign a multimillion-year deal you wanna say ‘f— you’ to all the people that doubted you because you did smoke weed.”

While Travis is not ashamed of his suspension he openly spoke about how in fact helped him in redirecting his future in football. Prior to the suspension, Travis was a quarterback and now is considered one of the best tight ends the NFL has seen.

“What [the suspension] did was it really kicked me into the tight end room,” Travis told the hosts on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast back in 2023. “I was still playing QB then. It was like, ‘Alright, you can come walk on the team, but we don’t need a quarterback. You can just be an athlete on scout team for a year, we’ll figure it out.’”

Travis has made five Super Bowl appearances, winning three. Jason and Travis made history as the first time brothers in the NFL faced off at the Super Bowl. The Chiefs ended up beating the Eagles in 2023 but in 2025, the Chiefs lost. Jason retired from the NFL in 2024. Travis will also play another season with the Chiefs as his return to football was seemingly up in the air at one point after the Chiefs Super Bowl loss earlier this year.

This article first appeared on NFL on ClutchPoints and was syndicated with permission.

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