Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce has left NFL fans on the edge of their seats as the world waits with bated breath for the 36-year-old football pro to confirm whether or not he plans to return to the AFC team for a 14th season—weeks before he is due to become a free agent.
Kelce, who joined the Chiefs in 2013 after being selected as the 63rd pick in that year’s NFL draft, has spent close to 13 years with the team, a run that the Chiefs have already stated they are happy to extend, should the tight end wish to do so.
The only issue? Nobody really seems to be sure whether that’s something the football star wants, including the Chiefs’ general manager, Brett Veach, who revealed earlier this month that, while he has had several “positive” discussions with Kelce about his future, nothing has been determined for the 2026 season.
Speaking to reporters at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, Veach noted that the Chiefs have “prepared for either scenario” with regard to Kelce’s future, insisting that the team has a spot ready for him in its lineup if he chooses to play for another year, but that it also has contingencies in place should he opt for retirement.
“Travis is the best, he’s an icon and hopefully he comes back and we’ll just let that process play out,” Veach said, according to Sky Sports.
For his part, Kelce has vehemently refused to address the retirement rumors that have dogged him for the last year—speculation that was further fueled when he announced his engagement to pop star Taylor Swift in August.
When he was asked about his plans for 2026 during the Chiefs’ training camp in August, Kelce fired back at reporters, saying: “Man, ask me that when I retire.”
Should he opt to retire, questions will likely be raised very quickly about where Kelce and Swift, 36, plan to settle down, with their shared property portfolio currently spanning a variety of locations across the U.S., including Leawood, KS, where the NFL star owns a sprawling $6 million mansion.
Kelce, who was born and raised in Ohio, closed on the property in November 2023 and has since made numerous updates to the mansion, including the addition of an underground “man cave,” which he began working on in October 2024.
Before snapping up that palatial abode, Kelce bought another dwelling, this time in the affluent Kansas City, MO, suburb of Briarcliff West. The sports star purchased that abode for the much lower price of $995,000 in 2019 and, despite since upgrading to a much larger home, records indicate that he still owns it.
However, should Kelce choose to end his time with the Chiefs, it’s unclear whether he would choose to continue living in the area, particularly given that his fiancee owns multiple lavish homes in other locations, including New York City, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.
It may be that the couple chooses to lay down roots at an entirely new home after tying the knot—which many fans believe will happen in June—with reports previously surfacing that they were seen looking at different houses in a tony Cleveland suburb, not far from where Kelce was raised.
According to local news outlet Scene, Swift and Kelce were seen touring “at least two opulent homes” just outside of the Ohio city—around the same time that they were spotted enjoying a lunch date in nearby Chagrin Falls.
“Multiple sources have confirmed to Scene that Swift and Kelce visited at least two opulent homes currently for sale in Northeast Ohio’s tony eastside suburbs on that visit,” the publication wrote in August 2025.
Still, both Swift and Kelce likely have very emotional ties to the Kansas dwelling—which is where the NFL star chose to pop the question over the summer, after turning his backyard into a floral wonderland to surprise the singer.
Should Kelce choose to offload his Kansas dwelling, he may face something of a struggle to recoup the money he invested in the property, with Realtor.com® data revealing that the median listing price in Leawood plummeted by 27.89% between December 2022, less than a year before he bought his dwelling, and December 2025.
For now, Kelce seems content to focus his efforts on enjoying his free time during the offseason, during which he has traveled to Pebble Beach, CA, to take part in a golf tournament, before jetting to New York, where he and Swift were seen on a date night at popular eatery Chez Margaux.
Images posted on Instagram by celebrity gossip account Deuxmoi showed the happy couple exiting the restaurant with some friends, before jumping into a waiting SUV that likely sped them back to Swift’s sprawling Tribeca penthouse, which spreads across four units in the same building.
The “Bad Blood” singer bought the first two of those units for about $20 million in 2014, then proceeded to combine them into a nine-bedroom, nine-bath abode with beamed ceilings, a curved staircase, and enormous windows.
She purchased a third unit in the building a few years later for $9.75 million, increasing her Tribeca takeover by over 3,500 square feet.
Then, in 2017, the pop star splurged on an adjacent townhouse, paying $18 million for the three-story mansion measuring 5,000 square feet, which joins her growing urban empire.
In addition, Swift owns a spread of homes in Nashville, TN, where she initially launched her music career as a teenager, having relocated to the southern city from her hometown in Pennsylvania.
One of the very first homes she bought was a chic penthouse in Nashville’s Music Row, which she purchased for $1.9 million in 2009. Two years later, she snapped up a mansion in the Northumberland Estate neighborhood of Nashville for $2.5 million.
Perhaps her favorite property, however, is her vacation home on Rhode Island, which she has owned for more than 10 years, and which has often served as her private sanctuary when she needs to get away from the hustle and bustle of her A-list career.
Located in Westerly, the historic abode was purchased by the singer for $17.75 million in 2013—and, for many years, it served as the setting for Swift’s infamous Independence Day parties, which were attended by a host of her A-list pals, including Gigi Hadid, Blake Lively, and Cara Delevingne.
The extravagant seaside estate was built in 1930 and once belonged to composer and socialite Rebekah Harkness, who was married to William Hale “Bill” Harkness.
Swift is said to have made several upgrades to the home in recent years—with renovation plans filed in late 2024 indicating that she was planning a significant expansion to the property, including the addition of another bedroom.
Whenever she needs to travel to the West Coast, Swift beds down in her extraordinary Beverly Hills mansion—a landmarked 1934 estate that was once owned by legendary movie producer Samuel Goldwyn.
Swift originally purchased the sprawling seven-bedroom, 7.5-bathroom property in 2015 for $25 million—scoring quite a sizable discount on the dwelling, which had originally been listed for $32 million.
The home, which sits on 2 acres and offers over 10,000 square feet of living space, was described in its listing as the “epitome of cordial grace and distinguished heritage.”
Highlights of the eye-catching home include seven bedrooms, a guest suite, a screening room, and a gym. The parklike grounds offer up a championship tennis court, rose garden, pool, and pool house.
