Travis Kelce was on an episode of the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast in November 2020 when the discussion of pronouncing last names came up. “I got ‘Kel-see,’ then I got ‘Kels.’ My real name is ‘Kels,’ so I mean I just kind of roll with the punches,” the Kansas City Chiefs tight end revealed.
That conversation turned into a viral clip in July 2021, and it left a couple of Kelce’s Chiefs teammates dumbstruck. “You learn something new everyday @tkelce,” Patrick Mahomes wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, while retweeting the podcast clip. That made fellow teammate Tyreek Hill jump into the conversation. “[S]o I’ve been saying his name wrong this entire time,” Hill wrote in response to the quarterback’s tweet. Shortly after, Kelce jumped in the replies to set the record straight for Hill. “[Y]ou’ve been sayin it right man, I go by both … One’s my real name and one’s a nick name,” Kelce wrote to Hill. His teammates were not the only ones who were left confused.
As the podcast clip of the tight end saying his name was pronounced “Kels” made the rounds, several fans were flabbergasted. “Travis Kelce saying his last name is pronounced Kelc instead of Kelsee is easily the most disappointing part of 2021,” one tweeted at the time. “I am in complete and utter shock….” another fan wrote about the last name revelation.
