Travis Kelce Only Caused More Confusion Explaining How His Name Is Pronounced

On Wednesday, the talk of the NFL world was Travis Kelce. It wasn’t because the Chiefs’ star tight end did anything to impact the upcoming season on the field, good or bad, but instead because of a revelation that had everyone, including his Kansas City teammates, shocked.

Kelce proclaimed that, for years, people have been pronouncing his name wrong, and that it was “Kels” not “Kel-see,” which led to a bunch of funny responses and reactions from the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill, who couldn’t believe they’d been saying their teammate’s name wrong for years and he had not once corrected them. There were some who thought Kelce was just trying to mess with everyone, as he does love a good joke, but the superstar tight end attempted to clear the air while at a charity event on Thursday. I say attempted because his clarification only brought more confusion to what the correct pronunciation is of his name.

So, basically, both are right, I guess? If his dad says “Kel-see” and everyone else says “Kels” on that side, then it’s not exactly a mispronunciation issue as much as it seems to be there is some internal debate among the Kelce’s about how to say their name. Travis’ brother, Jason, offered further explanation of what has happened with this when he called into the 94WIP Midday Show in Philadelphia.

“So I’ll give you the story behind why my brother said that,” Kelce explained. “My brother and I have gone by Kel-see our entire lives. I still remember my dad answering the phone as Ed Kel-see all growing up when he was on work calls and everything. But we have a really small family. We don’t have any first cousins. Somehow we got so disconnected with that side and my dad at some point, when he was working at the steel mills in Cleveland, Ohio, got tired of correcting everyone who was calling him Kel-see. Apparently the correct, the standard pronunciation is Kelse, which the rest of my family goes by. So my dad, out of pure laziness, completely changed his last name. For some reason he decided to change it and that’s what we’ve gone by our whole lives.”

It is a sensational story of a man so fed up with his name being mispronounced he just changed how he said it too rather than trying to correct everyone, which is incredibly midwest of him. In any case, it’s going to be funny to see which commentators, analysts, and announcers try to adjust how they say his name and which ones stick with the old tried and true version we’ve all been saying for years.