Travis Kelce wedding guest list may hint at where Chiefs star starts TV career
· Yahoo Sports
We here at Awful Announcing didn’t expect the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to be replete with sports media news, but one peculiarity did catch our eye.
And no, it wasn’t that Fox NFL officiating analyst Dean Blandino got the invite.
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As we scoured the many publicly reported guest lists published of the Swift-Kelce wedding, we noticed an oddity. Practically everyone from the NFL on Fox team was in attendance: Tom Brady, Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen, Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson (who are friends with the couple), Michael Strahan, Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, and even Blandino. Practically everyone from Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football team was there: Tony Gonzalez, Richard Sherman, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andrew Whitworth, and the aforementioned Thompson. (Notably, Al Michales and Kirk Herbstreit did not appear to be there, which we’ll get to in a second.) A strong contingent of ESPN NFL personalities also showed up, including Joe Buck and wife Michelle Beisner-Buck, Rich Eisen, Pat McAfee, Stephen A. Smith, and, of course, Jason Kelce.
But absent from the event was seemingly anyone from CBS or NBC. There was one rumor, from USA Today, that CBS lead NFL analyst Tony Romo may attend, despite his incessant on-air jokes about the couple. But Romo was not spotted by any paparazzi, nor included in any of the publicly available guest lists posted by the entertainment media.
Now, there are a multitude of reasons why this could be the case. Perhaps the best theory is that Kelce, who is almost certainly retiring from the NFL to join the media following the upcoming season, could be trying to curry favor with the NFL broadcasters he’d most like to work for. Fox, for instance, has yet to tap a full-time replacement for Jimmy Johnson, who retired prior to last season. Terry Bradshaw also won’t be on Fox’s NFL studio show forever, even if he’d like to be. That leaves a potential opening for Kelce to slot in on Fox after he wraps his playing career.
There’s also the possibility of Kelce wanting to call games in the booth, and the Prime Video job figures to be open before long. Play-by-play voice Al Michaels is on a year-to-year deal, and analyst Kirk Herbstreit’s contract expires following the 2026 season. Prime Video could be in for a total overhaul of its Thursday Night Football booth after this year, and Kelce could be a top target.
Then there’s ESPN, which already employs Travis’s brother Jason. Perhaps the brotherly duo would like to bring the chemistry from their popular New Heights podcast to ESPN’s airwaves.
But how do we explain the seeming absence of any CBS or NBC personalities? If Kelce’s invite list was purely about his future job prospects, it’d make sense. There’s no clear openings available on CBS, especially with Russell Wilson and Kyle Long joining The NFL Today studio show. Similarly, NBC retooled its entire Football Night in America studio this offseason, hiring Mike Tomlin as its centerpiece.
But could there be more to it than that? CBS broadcasts the most Chiefs games out of any network. One would presume that Kelce has spent more time with CBS NFL talent than Fox’s or Prime Video’s, and therefore would’ve had plenty of time to build relationships and friendships with the people working there. Was there some sort of network mandate from CBS Sports that told its talent not to attend the wedding? No doubt, opting not to attend the wedding would avoid any appearance of favoritism, and CBS will once again broadcast a Chiefs-heavy schedule this season.
We’ve reached out to CBS, but did not hear back in time for publication.
NBC’s conflict is less severe, though the network is scheduled to air a minimum of three Chiefs games on Sunday Night Football this upcoming season. Perhaps there was a similar calculus in play for NBC.
Whatever the case, Fox, Prime Video, and ESPN were all heavily represented at the wedding, while CBS and NBC appeared to have nobody there. Could this hint at where Travis Kelce wants to end up following his final NFL season? Maybe. Could it have simply been an editorial call from a couple networks to avoid the appearance of impropriety? Also possible.
Either way, the wedding’s invite list definitely proved more interesting than we thought from a sports media standpoint.
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