The absurdity of judging Travis Kelce for his extracurricular activities

As it turns out, there's a pretty good way to tell if you're a football fan with too much time on your hands. If you find yourself with a negative emotional response of really any level at all to how Travis Kelce spends his free time, it might be time for you to look for another hobby, find a second (or first) job, go to night school, or volunteer with a local non-profit. Whatever it is to get you out of caring about things you shouldn't.

Kelce has always been his own man, a player with loads of charisma more interested in marching to the beat of his own drum. The NFL was never going to hold all that Travis Kelce could or would be given his swagger, his sense of style, and his commitment to civic support and engagement. And let's not forget the charm that works on us all. (Oh, and that miserable dating show.)

Any Chiefs fan who has an opinion on how Travis Kelce spends his personal time needs a job or another hobby.

With the Kansas City Chiefs' ever-growing platform, Kelce found himself on the fastest track toward stardom along with anyone else who chooses to play in red and gold for any real length of time (pay attention, free agents-to-be).

Everything Kelce-related came into full bloom this offseason, in the aftermath of a second Super Bowl title and another record-setting season in '22. Suddenly he was being discussed as a first-ballot Hall of Famer on the field, but it was his HOF personality off of it that catapulted him to pop cultural icon.

It's the uber-popular podcast New Heights that rewrote player access and engagement. It was the Saturday Night Live turn that turned out better than anyone could have predicted. (Seriously, have you seen some of the wooden performances turned in by other athletes over the years?) And now we have Taylor.

There's no telling where that latter ride will end up. The long list of ex-boyfriends with No. 1 songs describing the aftermath is particularly telling about how difficult it is to stay together with someone so ubiquitous and in demand. But Kelce has always been along for the ride, so being concerned about such outcomes is getting ahead of even the man himself.

If Kelce is up for it, we should be, too. If it comes as part of the modern Chiefs package, we should smile and nod at that as well. Do you dislike seeing or hearing about Taylor Swift so much? Sorry but your favorite team is in a whole new stratosphere of societal interest, and more persons (including famous ones) are laying claim than ever before.

If Kelce wants to go to Argentina on his own time, he's more than welcome. If he wants to hang in K.C. to support a charity event, he can do that too. And if he wants to include both in a tightly packaged schedule, that's his prerogative. There's absolutely no part of Travis Kelce's social or personal life that should be of any level of concern for Chiefs Kingdom. None at all.

At this point, Kelce is a living legend still defining his prime years on the field. He's rewritten the record books at a position in which the Chiefs had already watched the best-ever—a legend atop a legend. That's insane if you think about it. Even crazier is that he's done it all after missing his entire rookie season with a knee injury back in 2013.

To be honest, how any player spends his free time away from the game of football is none of our business. But if any player we've watched over the years deserves even more of our benefit of the doubt, it's Kelce. He's always reached for more (and deserved more) than what the NFL alone could give him. His star was always going to shine brighter. Trying to mute that personality (or limit it) would likely only hurt the on-field performance as well.

And really, even if the on-field production somehow began to suffer because he was "distracted," that's still his choice and only his coaches would/should be in a position to confront the worries. For the rest of us, there's a whole world to explore ourselves. If Kelce's interests are making you upset, you need the same vision for something more that Travis has.