If you think you’re seeing Travis Kelce everywhere at the moment, you’re right. A recent report from the Wall Street Journal has revealed that up to Dec. 11 of the NFL season, the Kansas City Chiefs star has featured in a massive 375 commercials broadcast during football games.
Kelce’s star has, of course, rapidly risen since September when he went public with dating Taylor Swift, but the WSJ says Kelce’s drive of off-field pursuits had begun before he and Swift were together. His deals, which range from Pfizer to Campbell Soup, were all signed before his love-life was thrown into the public eye but WSJ claims many of the sponsors rushed forward the release of the Kelce commercials to coincide with his new level of fame.
The 34-year-old Kelce had been a target for companies before his Swift romance due to his standing in the game as one of NFL’s best ever tight ends and his persona away from the field. Travis, his brother Jason and their mom Donna dominated the build-up to the Super Bowl in February with the siblings on opposite teams.
‘Given the natural interest in consuming all things Travis, or the Kelce brothers, we just had so much content that we could put out there and people were just lapping it up,’ Linda Lee, Campbell Soup’s chief marketing officer said to WSJ.
Another factor in Kelce’s growing portfolio of work away from the football field could be his salary. He has openly said that he is underpaid at $14.3million a year and, given his level, he is right. ‘My managers and agents love to tell me how underpaid I am,’ Kelce told Vanity Fair this year. ‘Any time I talk about wanting more money, they’re just like, ‘Why don’t you go to the Chiefs and ask them?’”
But in the same article, Kelce – a two-time Super Bowl winner – made it firmly clear that he would trade money for being on a winning team, saying: ‘I’m like, the free market looks like fun until you go somewhere and you don’t win. I love winning. I love the situation I’m in.’ Vanity Fair said in June that Kelce had recently signed with New York talent agency CAA. On life after football, Kelce simply said: ‘I don’t know if what I want to do has really been done yet.’
