Everything Travis Kelce Eats: Inside His Winning Diet Ahead of the 2025 Super Bowl - E! Online

Travis Kelce has blown past the expiration date for tight ends with the help of childhood pal turned personal chef Kumar Ferguson, who keeps the Super Bowl 2025-bound athlete properly fueled.

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Travis Kelce's life may be firing on all cylinders off the field thanks to Taylor Swift, but it's his personal chef who ensures that the athlete has got the fuel he needs come game time.

And with the Kansas City Chiefs vying for their third straight championship—and fourth ring in six years—at the 2025 Super Bowl Feb. 9 against the Philadelphia Eagles, the fundamentals are more important than ever for the 35-year-old tight end.

"I don't know how I beat it," Travis told Yahoo! Sports in February 2023 of defying the usual performative decline that comes with age at his position. "I guess it's my nutrition. Shout out to KuEatsFresh, my man Kumar Ferguson. Whatever he's feeding me is keeping me young."

Childhood friends from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Travis and Kumar have been working together fulltime since 2016.

“He’s like, 'Hey man, I want to take my diet seriously, and take it to the next level,'" Kumar, who had been working as a truck driver and using the opportunity to sample cuisine from all over the country, told Vanity Fair in 2023. "I'm like, s--t, let’s do it. Three or four days later, I was in Kansas City."

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Their winning collaboration continues to this day, Kumar—aka Chef Ku—doing the grocery shopping, meal prepping and cooking three squares a day. He'll also bring Travis lunch during practice at the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium-adjacent training facility.

"It's fun, but I do take it seriously, just knowing that I can have some type of impact on his health,” Kumar—also founder of the recipe subscription site KuEatsFresh and ZoomChef, which connects professional athletes with verified chefs—told Startland News in September 2023. "I try to just bring my best to that to make sure he's equipped on the field and fueled up."

David Eulitt/Getty Images

So what does he feed the 6-foot-5 athlete, whose affinity for beer is legendary (and enduring, Travis now a co-owner of Ohio-brewed Garage Beer with big brother Jason Kelce) and who has a girlfriend known for lavishing homemade baked goods on her loved ones?

During the season the chef will prepare oatmeal and fresh fruit for breakfast, while Travis loves a seafood pasta alfredo for dinner. But also, meat. And then more meat.

Kumar Ferguson/Instagram

When Travis was attending University of Cincinnati, "he'd be going home back to Cleveland, and at 2, 3 a.m., his dad would be outside on the back porch, grilling filets for us," Kumar said. And at the end of the day, he added, "We're all just northern [Ohio] dudes. Steaks, chops, chicken and stuff like that, but I try to bring a modern flair to it."

Mom Donna Kelce facilitated her sons' protein-heavy diet as well. "The refrigerator was always packed, but it didn’t last more than a day or so," she told the Associated Press ahead of the 2023 Super Bowl. "Whole chickens, they would eat lots of pork, ribs. I'd have leftovers in the refrigerator and it never lasted past the day."

And of course Travis loves the robust Kansas City barbecue scene, but nowadays in moderation. "My first couple months here I was going to a different spot every week and my physique wasn’t where it needed to be as a professional athlete," he told Inside Hook in 2022. "I had to cut back a little bit, but I usually get it at least once or twice a month."

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Raising Cane's

At some point during their youth, Kumar assumed the mantle of resident chef long before Travis was paying him to do so.

"Growing up, I would cook for all the bros after we’d be hanging out all day," Kumar told Kansas City Magazine in 2024. "That kitchen table hangout has always been a center for all of us. We have definitely carried that tradition with us."

But tending to Travis' temple is also a business, one that has paid off in spades.

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"Everything about Travis' diet and what we do is intentional," Kumar told Startland News. "Everything is for fuel, for comfort, hydration, nutrition. There is purpose behind every dish. You go into the grocery store with that mindset. You go into the kitchen with that mindset. You put that intention into the food and then you hope that it translates to optimized health."

Kumar Ferguson/Instagram

Even the Chiefs' official dietitian Leslie Bonti was "super impressed with how Travis looked, his body metrics," Kumar noted. "His performance output matched his diet; that’s something that labs want to see. So we just got a lot of cool reviews. Things started picking up from there just as far as working with other guys on the team and trying to help out."

And while Travis may not be a veggie buff, Kumar fills his shopping cart with organic produce nonetheless, a sample run to a Kansas City Whole Foods that he shared to his Instagram Story including kale, asparagus, green beans, blueberries and oranges along with bacon, bison, chicken, fish, oatmeal, wild rice and chocolate milk.

On average Travis will take in around 4,000 calories on practice and game days.

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"Some players don't have an appetite in the mornings and aren’t necessarily eating a lot at lunch because they’re training," Leslie told Bet Kansas, per Fox 4, in December 2023. "Some guys go to bed early so they’re not doing an after-dinner snack because they want to sleep, so it is a lot less than what people think."

But while she finds that most athletes are "creatures of habit," variety is the spice of life.

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“We do have steak, pasta, chicken and sandwiches as well as French toast and we have this abundance of food so players can come in and think, ‘What shall I eat?'" she said. "What we don't want is players doing a U-turn and having a missed fueling opportunity, so kudos to our executive chefs.”

And Travis is all in on the French toast before games.

Claudia Casal

"On game day, you want to carb up, so I have the energy I need for the game," he told Men's Journal in 2020, days before winning his first Super Bowl ring. "If I can, I'll have a breakfast type of meal, since a lot of our games are from 12 to 4 in the afternoon. Sometimes you might get lunch, but it’s mostly breakfast. For me, I have to grab some French toast, get my blood sugar going, get some carbs in. I'm big on French toast. Always eat that at the team's pregame meal."

Also among his preferred sweets these days: Homemade pop-tarts and cinnamon rolls courtesy of a certain Grammy winner he's been rolling with for 18 months.

"I think I'm as focused as I've ever been on my job and being the best player that I can possibly be, week in and week out for this team," Travis told Stephen A. Smith in January, "and it's because I don't have to worry about things off the field."

Least of all what to eat next.

Grab the syrup and dig into the X'os and O's about Travis Kelce:

Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

1. Travis Kelce may be inextricably linked to Kansas City, Mo., for life, but he grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

And the man represents, shouting out his hometown instead of his alma mater, University of Cincinnati, during game broadcasts that include player introductions.

Which, as you might guess, has irked some fellow alums. 

"It’s not because I don’t appreciate the time I had at the University of Cincinnati, because I do, I cherish it dearly," Travis said in 2019 when he and big brother Jason Kelce were inducted into the Cleveland Heights High School Hall of Fame. "But there was a time when I was at Cincinnati that it wasn't easy for me. It was tough. I got my scholarship taken from me. I did a lot of dumb things. I'm sure a lot of people in this room know someone from Heights that's done a lot of dumb things. To all my friends, I was that guy."

And the Heights weren't just special to him, he continued, but "to every single person up here. How diverse this place is. It builds something in me. Every single thing I do is for this city. It sounds cliche, but I promise you, every single thing I do out there — when you see me dancing in the end zone, that’s Cleveland Heights, for you, right there."

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

2. About that revoked scholarship...

After the Bearcats' undefeated 2009 season that included a Big East title, Travis failed a marijuana test ahead of the 2010 Sugar Bowl after partying too hard on New Year's Eve in New Orleans.

Not only did he miss the bowl game, the NCAA suspended him for the 2010 season and he lost his scholarship. Finding himself without room and board, he moved in with Jason (literally into his brother's room in the house he shared with some teammates) and took a job as a telemarketer that entailed him asking anyone who picked up if they had thoughts about the Affordable Care Act.

They did, and Travis could not wait to get back on the field.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

3. Travis played hockey, baseball and basketball before getting into football, and he was a quarterback in high school. In fact, he was a two-star QB recruit for Cincinnati, and only ended up switching to tight end as a condition of his reinstatement to the team after his suspension.

"We had an awesome quarterback at the time in Zach Collaros and we needed some help in the run game as well as the passing game," Travis told Arrowhead Pride after he was drafted by the Chiefs in 2013, "so I talked to coach Butch Jones, who was my coach at the time, and he said we need a tight end and my skill-set, athleticism and my direction all transferred over and it worked out perfect for me."

Or, as he put it to GQ in 2017 while rehashing his un-shining moment, "Everybody my entire life had been telling me I was a tight end anyway."

Instagram (@donnakelce)

4. The house at 127 W. Nixon St. where Travis bunked with Jason and some fellow Bearcats was the scene of a lot of beer-infused shenanigans.

The brothers "used to love playing Nintendo 64 for hours, smashing the controls and chugging beers at the same time," college friend and teammate Tom DeTemple told the New York Times before the 2024 Super Bowl. "They would just come up with these random drinking games while playing, and they were incredibly good at it." 

5. And suffice it to say, Travis is extremely proud of being a Bearcat.

"It's all about Cincinnati, baby," he told reporters before the 2023 Super Bowl, which the Chiefs got to by beating the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game. "I've always been extremely prideful of coming from the University of Cincinnati. I finally got my diploma. I try to help out as much as I can. I go back to the university when I can. I just miss being around all those players that I played with, and all the people I met along the way there that have always been in my corner throughout the ups and downs of life."

And when he was down in the eyes of the NCAA, he continued, "The players, the coaches, the staff that was at the university at the time—really believed in me to be able to turn things around and do better for myself. That was huge for me at the time."

Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images

6. Almost a decade after leaving college to enter the draft, Travis earned his degree in interdisciplinary studies in 2022—but didn't pick up his diploma until April 2024 during a surprise commencement ceremony after he and Jason taped a live episode of New Heights at Cincinnati's Fifth Third Arena.

The graduate was already holding a can of beer as he approached the dean for his congratulatory handshake, after which he promptly chugged it.

And Travis was going to graduate in 2022 but he missed his flight.

Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

7. Largely due to his off-the-field issue, Travis ended up only the fifth tight end picked in the 2013 NFL Draft, going first in the third round to the Chiefs. After which coach Andy Reid, who'd previously coached Jason in Philadelphia, asked the elder Kelce sibling to vouch for Travis.

Andy and Travis have three Super Bowl rings to show for Jason's endorsement.

8. His hype music may have changed since, but for years Travis listened to Randy Newman's "Burn On" before every game.

"I'm an east side of Cleveland kid so growing up, I don't know why, but this song brings me back to thinking about family and thinking about where I am in life and how much I appreciate it," he said on the NBC Sports podcast PFT Live in 2017.

Let us explain: It's in the opening credits of Major League, the ultimate Cleveland sports movie.

Dustin Satloff/Getty Images

9. Everyone, including Travis, is mispronouncing his last name.

While he and Jason have just gone with Kelce sounding like "Kel-see," it actually rhymes with "else."

Travis' teammate Chris Jones fired off that bombshell on Inside the NFL in January—"F--king crazy, right?"—and the brothers confirmed as much when they confronted their dad Ed Kelce about it on their New Heights podcast.

"Why in the world did you change your name out of nowhere and now we are Kel-see?" Jason asked. "Why did we think that our name was Kel-see for the first 24 years... 27 years of my life, 25 of Trav's?"

Ed admitted he "got tired of correcting people" but urged his son to "do whatever you want."

John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

10. The No. 87 Travis has worn throughout his time in the NFL is a tribute to Jason, who was born in 1987.

"If there is a Kelce legacy, two brothers making it to the NFL, it all started in 1987, because this big guy was born in 1987," Travis explained to NFL Films ahead of the 2023 Super Bowl featuring his Chiefs squaring off against Jason's Philadelphia Eagles.

11. Travis' foundation 87 and Running has been a longtime benefactor of Operation Breakthrough, a nonprofit learning center in Kansas City that the athlete has worked with since his first visit in 2015 to read The Cat in the Hat to the kids.

Yes, reader, he wore the hat.

Since then, Travis has invested in the program's Smart Lab and bought the former muffler shop next door so they could expand and create their Ignition Lab, where the young scholars converted old cars that could've ended up on the scrap heap into working electric vehicles.

David Calvert/Getty Images for American Century Investments

12. Travis and Jason call their New Heights listeners "92 percenters" in reference to Jason once commenting that a play known as a quarterback sneak worked "92 percent of the time" when all you need is one yard to score a touchdown.

Fans were apparently quite tickled and basically christened themselves the "92 percenters," according to the podcast's website, which likened it to "their secret handshake, but in words."

Who were the Kelce brothers to argue with that?

David Eulitt/Getty Images

13. Travis has three personal trainers—Alex Skacel, Andrew Spruill and Laurence Justin Ng—and, according to The Athletic, one usually travels with him wherever he goes to ensure he remains in football-catching shape all year round.

Alex, who's also a physical therapist, recalled Travis wanting to go for a late night run after taking in a slate full of shows during Paris Fashion Week because he missed working out that day.

"It's midnight, and we're doing sprints over the bridges over the river," the trainer told the New York Times in April. "No matter where he is, he finds time to get done whatever he needs to get done."

14. Travis' personal chef, Kumar Ferguson, has been a friend since the fourth grade in Cleveland Heights. 

He was an amateur cook working as a truck driver in 2016 when Travis called him up and offered him the opportunity.

"He's like, 'Hey man, I want to take my diet seriously, and take it to the next level,'" Kumar told Vanity Fair in 2023. "I'm like, s--t, let's do it. Three or four days later, I was in Kansas City."

He's been responsible for everything from stocking Travis' fridge to delivering well-balanced lunches to the Chiefs' training facility.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

15. Travis' facial hair is under the microscope more than ever now, so he explained on New Heights that he shaved his off-season beard and kept the 'stache in 2023 as an homage to the walrus look favored by Andy Reid and decided to repeat in 2024.

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

16. The $34.25 million two-year contract Travis signed in April 2024 made him the highest-paid tight end in the NFL for the first time in his career.

Which finally put an end to years of chatter about how much money he wasn't making.

"My managers and agents love to tell me how underpaid I am," Travis quipped to Vanity Fair in 2023. "Any time I talk about wanting more money, they're just like, 'Why don't you go to the Chiefs and ask them?'"

But by then, with many other sources of income having opened up for him, he cared more about the vibes than the paycheck.

"I'm like, the free market looks like fun until you go somewhere and you don’t win," he explained. "I love winning. I love the situation I'm in."

Seeing other players' huge paydays "hits you in the gut a little bit," he admitted. "It makes you think you’re being taken advantage of. I don't know if I really pressed the gas if I would get what I’m quote-unquote worth. But I know I enjoy coming to that building every single day."

Steph Chambers/Getty Images

17. Travis has been into clothes since growing up in Cleveland Heights, where his high school "was like a fashion show every day," he told Vanity Fair in 2023.

Hence the bedroom he converted into a closet, the better to house his designer threads and more than 300 pairs of sneakers—including a pair of size-13 Nike Air Mags that he spent a sizable portion of his rookie year salary on despite them being a size too small.

"Earlier on in my career, when they didn't have all these sneaker apps," he explained to the Wall Street Journal, "it was whatever size I could get in the shoe that I wanted."

While he's very much a Nike guy (and not just because the brand sponsors him), Chuck Taylors also hold a space in his heart because they remind him of fictional baseball phenom Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez in The Sandlot.

Isaiah Vazquez/Clarkson Creative/Getty Images

18. Among his dozens of investments, Travis co-owns Ohio-brewed Garage Beer with Jason.

"I think everyone knows I like to have a couple beers now and then," Travis said in a June statement, "so being an owner of Garage Beer and heavily involved in making the best light beer is exciting, man! There is nothing better to bring people together than an ice-cold beer, and for Jason and me that is what beer is all about—friends, family and fun."

19. We're sensing a theme when it comes to Travis' guilty pleasure TV choices.

Back in the day, it was Gossip Girl: "I mean, it's awesome," he said on New Heights. "It like a New York high school show with a lot of drama and basically everybody gossiping and talking s--t on each other."

His new favorite show? Peacock's Emmy-winning backstab-a-ganza The Traitors.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

20. In his 12th year in the NFL at 35, Travis has been more open of late about the toll the game takes on the body.

But he's been stoically getting hammered since day one, when he missed his rookie year with a microfracture in his knee that required the first of the 10 surgeries he's had in his career.

JOHN G MABANGLO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

21. Travis put it out there, talking on New Heights about his thwarted attempt to give Taylor Swift a friendship bracelet with his number on it when the Eras Tour touched down in Kansas City.

And after hearing through the grapevine (people in her camp who knew who Travis was and that he wanted to meet her), she contacted him.

"She told me exactly what was going on," he told WSJ. Magazine, "and how I got lucky enough to get her to reach out to me." 

22. One of Travis' favorite desserts since forever is French toast topped with whipped cream and syrups.

But more recently he's become a fan of his girlfriend's homemade Pop-Tarts and cinnamon rolls.

23. At least one of Travis' ringtones is Chris Farley shrieking "For the love of God!" in Tommy Boy.

"I told Taylor that I have that world, I've got to introduce it to her," he told WSJ. The Magazine of sharing his affinity for the comedy stylings of Farley, Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell with his girlfriend. "I let her know: This is my jam right here."

Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images

24. After screaming "You've got to fight for your right to party!" after their AFC Championship win over the Bengals in 2019, Travis inspired the Chiefs to start playing the Beastie Boys song of the same name following every home game touchdown at Arrowhead Stadium.

"It's like an energy multiplier. That's hard to quantify just how important that is," Chiefs general manager Brett Veach told ESPN in 2020. "He plays with that kind of character, charisma, passion, and he brings people along with him. In our building, everybody is friends with Travis Kelce. He is an ultimate energy giver. He elevates everybody's mood, focus, attention and at the end of the day, he's still fun."

But the boisterous celebrant who brought it into their lives admittedly didn't know all the words to the 1986 classic until he was tasked with performing it with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in February 2023.

Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

25. Speaking of his jams, in May 2024 Travis cited his three favorite Taylor songs as "Blank Space," "The Alchemy" and "So High School."

Asked about it in September, however, his answer had changed to, "They're all my favorite—literally every single one."

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

26. Comparisons to the Chiefs' legendary tight end Tony Gonzalez, who retired in 2013 after 17 seasons in the league, started early for Travis.

In 2015, when the chatter about whether he would, in fact, surpass Tony's achievements—and how disappointing it would be if he didn't—was heating up, Travis said he paid the noise no mind.

 "Nobody puts bigger expectations on me than myself," he told Complex. "I want to have the greatest season statistically that a tight end has ever had."

On Sept. 29, Travis surpassed Tony to become the Chiefs' all-time leader in receptions with his 917th catch.

"It's crazy how things always come full circle," Travis said on New Heights. "Being at the top of the leaderboard with the Kansas City Chiefs who have been around since the '60s, one of the beginning organizations that made it all the way through that are still at their peak. And a lot of that is due to the rich history they have and to a guy like Tony Gonzalez, who has been a mentor to me. I f--king love the guy."

27. Of Travis' many accomplishments, keeping his house in order on his own isn't one of them.

"He can't clean," mom Donna Kelce told Extra in September. "He can't cook.”

But perhaps hosting a special someone when she's in town has served as extra motivation to get it together.

"He's getting a little better," Donna acknowledged. "I think he's getting some help."

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