Chiefs’ Travis Kelce and his brother clear up confusion about pronouncing their name
Chiefs training camp can’t come soon enough for fans and the players.
There was a big hubbub Wednesday after Twitter user Braiden Turner dug up a clip of tight end Travis Kelce’s visit with the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast in November. During that chat, Kelce said the world has been mispronouncing his name.
“I’ve got ‘KEL-see’ and I’ve got ‘Kels,’” said Kelce. “My real name is ‘Kels,’ so I mean, I just kind of roll with the punches.”
Everyone in Chiefs Kingdom had the same question: We’ve all been saying his name wrong?
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was amused after seeing that tweet.
The floodgates soon opened as the pronunciation of Kelce’s name became a hot topic with Tyreek Hill, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Khalen Saunders and Chris Jones weighing in.
So did the Chiefs and Rick Burkholder, the team’s vice president of sports medicine and performance.
This set off investigations* to try and get to the bottom of what to call Kelce.
*No, seriously, just take a look below
Harold Kuntz of Fox 4 found a clip from before the AFC Championship Game in 2020 between the Chiefs and Titans.
KCTV-5’s Dani Welniak consulted the Chiefs pronunciation guide:
Pete Sweeney of the Arrowhead Pride blog consulted the University of Cincinnati football team’s pronunciation guide from 14 years ago when Kelce’s brother played for the Bearcats:
About the only thing missing was someone going back to Kelce’s days growing up in Cleveland Heights. Wait ... someone actually did that. A fan name Ryan Patrick Dolan said he contacted Kelce’s childhood friend:
OK, so in the midst of all this sleuthing/hand-wringing over a comment Kelce made about his name in November(!), the man himself stepped up to clear things up.
This is what Kelce tweeted about the proper pronunciation of his last name:
Welp. That didn’t clarify anything. But, then again, it doesn’t really matter. The important thing is it led to a fun day of chatter among fans and the players.
This Chiefs fan summed up things well:
Here’s a reminder: Chiefs training camp opens on July 28.
Update: Eagles offensive lineman Jason Kelce blamed the whole thing on ... his father.
“Everybody was calling him Kelce. Apparently the standard pronunciation is Kels that the rest of the family goes by,” he said Thursday on SportsRadio 94WIP in Philadelphia. “So my dad, out of pure laziness, completely changed his last name.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 8:19 AM.
