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As Travis Kelce nears the end of his career and his off-field life draws outsized attention, it has become common to analyze the Kansas City Chiefs superstar’s physique and practice performance as a referendum on his focus or commitment. Every player deals with this, with cameras everywhere and video easily accessible across social media. But for Kelce, who is about to turn 37 and is seen as distracted by his relationship with Taylor Swift, the scrutiny is intense. Last week, a simple clip from Chiefs camp generated more than 6 million views on X, mostly as fans jeered Kelce for the slow, methodical route he ran to get open against a Kansas City defensive back. Because people love to debate online, the clip also led many to mock the defensive back for failing to contain Kelce. During a segment on their New Heights podcast this week, Kelce and his brother Jason weighed in on the situation. Jason Kelce was critical of the NFL and teams for turning practice into a content opportunity, while Travis laughed off the “fat-shaming” while explaining why he appeared so slow in the clip. “I can’t stand when they put these clips online,” Jason said. “Can we just let practice be its own thing? We don’t need to show everything.” “To me, if there’s one safe space that a guy should feel good about, like, ‘I’m gonna try this new thing. It might not work out, but I’m going to try it in practice, but it’s not a game.’ And then all of a sudden … now it lives forever on social media.” Travis Kelce, who has never been a quick-twitch burner by any means, has clearly slowed down in his late 30s. The future Hall of Famer’s production has diminished, and he has considered retirement each offseason for several years. But he didn’t think the viral clip fairly demonstrated his athletic ability. Kelce explained on New Heights that the slow-paced route in the clip was an intentional way to deceive the DB. “You don’t see everything that’s out there,” he said. “They just saw how slow that route was, and what they don’t realize is that that route is based off of 100 other routes that I’ve ran at camp, and I’m setting up that move or I’m trying to entice that move. And I’m going so slow it’s like I’m feeding you what you want to try and jump the route that you think I’m gonna run.” In typical Kelce brother fashion, neither got overly riled up. Kelce’s resume in Kansas City speaks for itself, and portions of each practice are closed to media. Travis called the online chatter “pure f*cking comedy.” Embarrassing clips are one thing, but we found out this summer that the NFL is intentionally inserting players’ partners into practice situations to generate more compelling content. The viral lovefest between Justin Herbert and Madison Beer at Chargers camp was, reportedly, at least partially staged. Even if it can sometimes make players look bad or spark silly online conversations, the NFL is unlikely to place more restrictions on this sort of content any time soon.