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Kelce, who turns 35 in October, has had an incredibly active offseason between shooting television shows and following his pop star girlfriend Taylor Swift around the globe.
So at training camp on Saturday at Missouri Western State University, Kelce confessed that rest is becoming more and more of a priority for him.
‘Last year was pretty taxing on my body,’ Kelce said after practice.
‘I’ve had more snaps than a lot of guys if not everybody in the NFL over the past five, six years, and I’m very prideful of that, but I know it has taken a toll on my body.
‘So it’s just making sure that my body’s getting that rest and that ability to train harder and be able to withstand an entire 17-to-20-game season.’
Kansas City appears to be adding ammo when it comes to tight ends – signing veteran free agent Irv Smith in the offseason while also drafting Jared Wiley out of TCU in the offseason. They also have Noah Gray on the roster, who was fourth on the Chiefs in catches last season.
In spite of this, there hasn’t been any signs that the Chiefs will be reducing Kelce’s role.
With about a week of training camp come and gone, Kelce hasn’t had a single day’s rest and has not indicated that he plans to change that.
‘This is my sanctuary,’ Kelce said. ‘St. Joe, Year 12. That means I’ve spent just about an entire year of my life up here in the dorms.
‘Everybody may say that is pretty grueling, but I enjoy it. There’s something about this place to get you ready every single year, and I’m not going to lie, I got pretty excited as the time started counting down to get out here and get this thing rolling.
‘This is where it all starts. You can say it starts in the offseason, and yeah, you want to get that foundation set in the offseason of the leadership and the mentality and things like that.
‘But at the end of the day, this is where you really find out what the team is made of, how you sharpen the iron, how your guys practice your practice habits, the attention to detail, and nobody does it better than Coach [Andy] Reid.’
Kelce added that he works with a number of personal trainers, saying, ‘I’ve got guys all over the place.’
But that aside, he says that not much has changed in his offseason routine since early in his NFL career.
‘Over every single season you find ways to get better at what works for you, [eliminate] what doesn’t, and you just want to amp it up every single year so that you keep finding ways to kind of climb that staircase of success,’ Kelce said.
‘I would say I’m doing some things differently but nothing really in the grand scheme of things. Just putting my nose to the grinder.’