Ed Kelce holds a unique title in the world of parenting – he is the father of not only one, but two Super Bowl players in the NFL, and in the very same year. His sons, Travis and Jason Kelce, of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles respectively, faced off in the Super Bowl LVII earlier this year.
Jason and Travis’ mother, Donna Kelce, has been the subject of significant press interest, and has discussed her son’s highly-publicized relationship with Taylor Swift. Ed, however, has been a little more outside of the public eye. Here’s what we know about the proud Papa Kelce.
Who is Ed Kelce?
Ed Kelce (reportedly born circa 1952) was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. As he stated on his sons’ New Heights podcast, he originally started his adult life intending to work in the U.S. Coast Guard, but a Crohn’s disease diagnosis meant he had to drop out shortly after enlisting. He instead opting to work in the steel industry in his home city as a sales representative, as well as working in a candy shop during the Christmas holidays.
Ed and Donna Kelce met in the late 1970s and married in the early 1980s, welcoming two sons after five years of marriage – Jason, born in 1987, and Travis, born in 1989. According to the Kelce boys, their parents divorced at the turn of the millennium after nearly 25 years of marriage, when they were adolescents. “I don’t hate him. We’re friends to this day. We get along great,” Donna Kelce said on the New Heights podcast.
Ed and Donna Kelce still get together frequently to attend their sons’ football games, and to fulfill their grandparent duties. Through Jason and his wife, Kylie Kelce, they have three granddaughters – Wyatt (born 2019), Elliotte (born 2021), and Bennett (born 2023).
According to Jason and Travis, Ed was an accomplished athlete himself when he was younger, having played football and rugby in his youth. Ed was said to have had a tough-love approach to coaching his boys and pushed them to pursue their skills on the football field full-time. On the New Heights podcast he said:
“My job is to help you find a passion, and then feed that passion. Whatever you want to do, I’m there/ It was very apparent to me when you were in high school that there was something outrageously special about both of you.”
Ed has stated that he has plans to publish an autobiography about his relationship with his sons, titled Somebody to Grow Up With, although a publication date has not been announced. To answer the most frequently asked question about Ed Kelce, however, he has said he has met Taylor Swift and was a fan of her down-to-earth demeanor and manners, which he picked up from a small gesture of hers during a Chiefs football game.
“We’re sitting in the suite, she gets up and in the front room, she gets up to go get a drink or something and she starts picking up empty bottles, cans, plates that are scattered around. Because in the suites everybody gets stuff and you empty it down wherever you can.
And I’m just thinking, I don’t think she got the diva memo. She didn’t get the spoiled musician. She doesn’t know how to pull that off. And that really to me said a whole lot.”
Here’s hoping we see that autobiography soon, but at least it’s nice to know that he’s getting on well with his son’s new girlfriend, who happens to be arguably the most famous woman in the world.