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Travis Kelce has become one of the best tight ends in NFL history over the course of his time with the Chiefs, but he wasn’t always a sure thing to wind up playing the position.
When Kelce arrived at the University of Cincinnati, he saw time as a Wildcat quarterback during his redshirt freshman season. That background is referenced often during games when the Chiefs have Kelce take a direct snap or otherwise run the football, but another part of his lore is responsible for taking him off the quarterback depth chart altogether.
During an appearance on
the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast, Kelce said that being suspended for the entire 2010 season for testing positive for marijuana put an end to any thoughts of a future as a quarterback.
“What it did was it really kicked me
into the tight end room. I was still playing QB then,” Kelce said, via CBSSports.com. “It was like, ‘Alright, you can come walk on the team, but we don’t need a quarterback. You can just be an athlete on scout team for a year, we’ll figure it out.'”
Kelce’s full-time move to tight end led to him being selected in the third round of the 2013 draft and the 814 catches he’s picked up since that point make it clear that he wound up in the right spot on the field.