What 2025 could bring for Travis Kelce: NFL retirement, Taylor Swift proposal… or will he become a father?

As the curtain fell on 2023, Travis Kelce entered the year riding the wave of his blockbuster romance with Taylor Swift and chasing a third Super Bowl ring with the Kansas City Chiefs.

He will wave goodbye to 2024 after achieving the latter in dramatic fashion – with the Chiefs getting over the line after a nail-biting encounter with the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas back in February – before delivering one of the pictures of the year as he embraced Swift on the field afterwards .

Away from football, the relationship with the pop megastar has gone from strength to strength in the past 12 months, while there have even been acting and presentation debuts on the small screen. The New Heights podcast, which he co-hosts with brother Jason, also now has close to 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube.

So the question is… how can Kelce possibly top all that in 2025?

Believe it or not, next year has the potential to go down as the most sensational yet for the NFL superstar, given the possible next steps he and Swift could take in their relationship.

Engagement talk has been rife throughout 2024, with Taylor’s die-hard legion of ‘Swiftie’ fans desperate for Travis to get down on one knee and make it official with their beloved songstress.

They’ll be holding their breath for him to do so in 2025, and it would take a brave man to bet against the Chiefs tight end popping the question before the year is out.

As recently as this week, fans began speculating that the pair are already engaged after claiming that Swift’s left ring finger looked ‘blurred’ in a photo from her glittering Eras Tour party.

A number of social media users theorized that she intentionally ‘edited’ an engagement ring to hide the news that Kelce has already asked her to marry him.

The couple has yet to announce such news, which would undoubtedly break the internet if indeed confirmed.

Still, the pressure will be on for Kelce to step up and tie the singer down, especially considering fellow NFL prospect Josh Allen recently proposed to his own pop star girlfriend in Hailee Steinfeld.

Considering Allen and Steinfeld’s romance didn’t become public until May 2023 — four months before Kelce and Swift’s reveal — we might not be too far away from the earth-shattering moment of a Travis proposal.

And if a courtship would be worldwide, then a pregnancy bomb would completely blow it to pieces.

Again, Swifties are not tired of speculating if Travis and Taylor have children together in 2024, especially after the former dropped a number of hints throughout the year.

While presenting ‘Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity’ on Prime Video, Kelce discussed the topic of parenting when celebrity contestant Ryan Fitzpatrick joked that having children makes you ‘smarter’.

‘Is that what happens when you have children? Are you getting wiser?’ said the 35-year-old. “Man, that’s all I had to do to become genius?”

Then he teased the idea of ​​becoming a father once again when he talked about NBA player Victor Wembanyama’s 7ft 4in frame at New Heights with brother Jason last month.

“You can’t tell me the guy wasn’t made in a lab over there in France,” Travis joked of Wembanyama before adding, “lab-grown diamonds? That’s a lab-grown freaking NBA player. Can’t wait until I damn make one.

Jason then addressed the inevitable Swiftie frenzy by laughing: ‘Don’t do this. Don’t give any of these other conspiracy theorists anything else to hold on to, please.’

Unfortunately for Travis’ big brother, the conspiracy theories about a Swift-Kelce baby will continue to intensify the longer they stay together.

And while a proposal may be the more likely of the two, Travis becoming a father for the first time can’t be ruled out either, as he turns 36 in 10 months.

It’s no secret that the three-time Super Bowl winner wants to start a family, so there will be few surprises if the wheels are set in motion for that over the next year.

Nevertheless, 2025 could also prove to be memorable for Kelce for slightly less cheerful reasons.

The first four months of the 2024 NFL season have been a rollercoaster ride for the Kansas City hero, whose below-par form at times has sparked widespread concern that he could be set to bow out of football.

As things stand, Kelce is on pace to record his fewest receptions for the Chiefs since 2017 with 84, which is set to go down as the fourth-lowest return of his 11-year career.

His numbers are also way down when it comes to yards. Through 14 games, he has just 709, with his previous low of 862 coming in his rookie season 10 years ago.

The man himself has dropped a number of hints about retirement over the past year, including when he suggested that his outing against the Browns last weekend could be the last time he ever plays in his hometown of Cleveland.

“It felt so surreal,” Travis told Jason at New Heights. ‘I don’t know if this is the last time I play in Cleveland, but it kind of felt like I was giving it one last hurray before I’m done because I’ve only played there twice in 12 years… It was a special day for me personally.’

Of course, another Super Bowl ring isn’t out of the question for Kelce next year, with the Chiefs currently boasting a formidable 13-1 record.

They’ve run their luck on several occasions after managing a ton of one-score games, while the likes of the Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills will provide stiff competition in the postseason.

However, the back-to-back champions also entered last year’s playoffs as Super Bowl outsiders after flattering to deceive in the regular season before proving they were a clutch outfit by pulling off some huge wins on their way to a second consecutive Vince Lombardi.

Andy Reid’s winning machine remains one of the leading contenders to go all the way this season and seal an unprecedented ‘three-peat’ – but in either scenario, Kelce may feel the time has come to hang up his cleats and prioritize both his relationship with Swift and his newfound status as a TV personality.

Waving goodbye to the sport he’s dedicated his entire life to will be a lot easier to do if he actually wins a third straight Super Bowl in New Orleans.

Getting his hands on one last ring in 2025 would give him the perfect opportunity to ride off into the sunset with Swift by his side. And who knows… a different kind of ring could be a bigger conversation piece.