Travis Kelce says he wants to call an NFL game one day.

We’ve speculated on his sports media future before, and given that his brother Jason is already a fixture on Monday Night Countdown, Travis won’t be lacking in opportunities, if that’s the path he chooses. He could just as easily pivot to Hollywood or the WWE. But wherever he lands, don’t expect him to be rattling off ad reads anytime soon.

Reading, as it turns out, isn’t exactly his strong suit.

Kelce knows how to entertain. He can act, he can improvise, he can command a stage. But reading? Please, for the love of God, don’t ask him to do that. On a recent appearance on Bussin’ With the Boys, the FanDuel-sponsored podcast hosted by Taylor Lewan and Will Compton, Kelce admitted that hosting Saturday Night Live was a serious challenge, not because of the spotlight or pressure, but because of the table reads.

“The table reading, for a guy that can’t really read that well, it was kind of a f*cked situation,” he said.

And if that’s how he felt about SNL, how would he handle live commentary in the booth?

Lewan joked that he probably saw Tom Brady’s 10-year, $375 million broadcasting deal, and Kelce didn’t deny it. “Everyone saw it,” he laughed. But if he’s going to be under the same kind of weekly scrutiny Brady faces, it better be for what he called “a f*ck ton of money.”

“I want to see what calling a game feels like,” Kelce said. “Yeah, I want to see getting in the booth.”



He’s always mimicked broadcasters growing up and thinks it would be fun. But ask him to do a table read or dive into improv again? He’s not exactly sprinting toward it.

“I’ve always feel like [I] impersonated guys that call the games and stuff like that growing up,” Kelce continued. “I don’t know, I thought it would always be fun. Just jump in there.

That doesn’t mean he’s signing up for anything scripted. Kelce made it clear he has little interest in improv or another round of table reads. The SNL experience was enough of a challenge, and while he’s open to trying live commentary, reading from a teleprompter, or impersonating one of the many broadcasters of his youth might not be in his wheelhouse.

Even the basics of calling a game — like pronouncing names correctly — might be a stretch.

“Player names is where I would get f*cking ruined,” Kelce said.

Well, Chris Russo has made a 40-plus-year radio career out of butchering names. So if Kelce is afraid of reading names wrong, he’s in good company, and probably overthinking it. The truth is, no one’s hiring Travis Kelce to be Cris Collinsworth. They would be hiring him to be Travis Kelce.

And in today’s sports media landscape, that might be worth a f*ck ton of money all by itself.