{"id":711251,"date":"2026-01-28T10:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T10:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/711251\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T10:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T10:32:21","slug":"clark-hunt-says-chiefs-certainly-hope-travis-kelce-returns-to-play-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/711251\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark Hunt says Chiefs \u2018certainly hope\u2019 Travis Kelce returns to play in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; As the Kansas City Chiefs wait for tight end Travis Kelce to make his decision on whether to call it a career or return for another season, the man whose written checks to him for over a decade is hopeful for more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Chiefs owner Clark Hunt made an appearance on NFL Network\u2019s Good Morning Football on Tuesday, and was asked about Kelce\u2019s pending decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWell, as an organization we certainly hope that he will come back,\u201d Hunt said following Kelce\u2019s 13th NFL season. \u201cHe had another great year, maybe not on par with where he was four or five years ago, but still had over 800 yards and really was one of the leaders on the offensive side of the ball for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce heads off the field following an NFL football game...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769596341_861_OZGSYB7SNVEN5B24AJHPN3UVYM.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" \/>Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce heads off the field following an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo\/David Becker)(David Becker | AP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To Hunt\u2019s point, Kelce led the Chiefs in receptions (76), yards (851) and touchdown receptions (5) for the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt in my mind that he can still play,\u201d Hunt continued. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to be respectful and let him have the time that he needs to make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Hunt acknowledged that Kelce has a busy offseason with his engagement and soon-to-be marriage to music superstar Taylor Swift. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe want to be respectful and give him the time he needs to make the decision, but we certainly hope he will be back,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Last week, Kelce caught fans\u2019 attention with his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kctv5.com\/2026\/01\/21\/travis-kelce-shares-glowing-review-eric-bieniemys-return-kansas-city\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kctv5.com\/2026\/01\/21\/travis-kelce-shares-glowing-review-eric-bieniemys-return-kansas-city\/\">praise for recently rehired Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy<\/a> on his New Heights podcast. Kelce noted he \u201ccan\u2019t wait to see him back in the building,\u201d a comment that piqued fans\u2019 interest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Kelce, at 36, will turn 37 in October. He was named a Pro Bowler for the 11th time in his career in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; As the Kansas City Chiefs wait for tight end Travis Kelce to make&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[346,103272,7,118,110,2438,2437,6,95274],"class_list":{"0":"post-711251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-chiefs","9":"tag-clark-hunt-on-travis-kelce","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kansas-city","12":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","13":"tag-kansascity","14":"tag-kansascitychiefs","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-travis-kelce-retirement-decision"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115972273567549783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}