Caitlin Clark on “Life Changing” Rookie Season, Chiefs Fandom, NBA Ratings Debate and more | Ep 117

Happy New Year 92%ers, we’ve got an incredible episode to kick off 2025. Joining us today is WNBA Rookie of the Year, Caitlin Clark! Caitlin and the guys talk about everything from winning Time Magazine’s Athlete of the Year, why she isn’t a bandwagon Chiefs fan, what it was really like hanging with Travis at the Eras tour, and the biggest takeaways from her historic rookie season. We also find out just how close she came to playing for Notre Dame, who can name the most Iowa NFL players, pitch ideas to help the NBA ratings, her GOAT basketball shoe, and so much more. We will be back next week to break down the NFL Playoffs and maybe some other surprises! You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. . . . Download the full podcast here: Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMb Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynw Follow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshow Support the Show: AUDIBLE: Sign up for a free 30-day trial at https://audible.com/newheights SEATGEEK: Use our code for 10% off your SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/NEWHEIGHTS $25 max discount FARMER’S DOG: Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at https://TheFarmersDog.com/newheights https://thefarmersdog.com/newheights. Plus, you get FREE shipping! AG1: New Subscribers head to http://drinkag1.com/newheights for a a FREE $76 gift when you sign up. You’ll get a Welcome Kit with a bottle of Vitamin D3K2 AND five free AG travel packs in your first box. ALLSTATE: Checking first is smart. So, check https://Allstate.com https://allstate.com first for a quote that could save you hundreds. ACCELERATOR: Use code 10BUCKSOFF to get $10 off a case of Accelerator through 1/8! Limit one per customer https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/FB06B38E-F0C2-479F-9DA5-FD4A1C852B07/?_encoding=UTF8&store_ref= https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/FB06B38E-F0C2-479F-9DA5-FD4A1C852B07/?_encoding=UTF8&store_ref= See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Travis Kelce?

  Thank you to our sponsor, Colgate Total.

• 0:34Speaker 02

  On offense, it's important to prevent problems from the moment the ball is snapped.

• 0:39Travis Kelce?

  That's true. Otherwise, you're just out there running cardio. Can't get open for a big play.

• 0:45Speaker 02

  But it's not just football. There's a lot of things you need to prevent before they start.

• 0:50Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, like in your mouth.

• 0:51Speaker 02

  My mouth specifically?

• 0:53Travis Kelce?

  I mean, probably yours too, but I'm talking everybody's mouth. There's bacteria in there that can lead to oral health problems like cavities, gingivitis.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  Right, yeah, all the nasty stuff. But the good news is you can prevent these problems before they start with Colgate Total Active Prevention. It's like having a good offensive line for your mouth.

• 1:16Travis Kelce?

  Ooh, exactly. With twice daily brushing, Colgate Total prevents oral health problems like cavities and gingivitis.

• 1:23Speaker 02

  And it's not just one contributing player either. It's a whole system. Toothpaste, mouthwash, and a special toothbrush.

• 1:31Travis Kelce?

  Now that's the squad you want, fighting for your mouth.

• 1:33Speaker 02

  Colgate Total is like having a full playbook in your bathroom, working to help prevent oral health problems before they start.

• 1:41Travis Kelce?

  Get Colgate Total on Amazon today.

• 1:45Speaker 03

  To realize the future America needs, we understand what's needed from us to face each threat head on. We've earned our place in the fight for our nation's future. We are Marines. We were made for this.

• 1:59Speaker 04

  You know, the NCAA, like, they don't have many rules on much anymore.

• 2:02Speaker 02

  Women's sports is blown up with the NIL stuff.

• 2:04Speaker 04

  It's been great for everybody, honestly.

• 2:06Travis Kelce?

  You're a little bit closer to the NIL world. Have you heard of anybody paying their taxes? I definitely wasn't fucking ready to pay taxes when I was in college. Like, I wasn't thinking about that shit.

• 2:19Speaker 04

  I know. That's what I always think about.

• 2:26Travis Kelce?

  Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen.

• 2:29Speaker 02

  How's it going?

• 2:30Travis Kelce?

  A Wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and big thanks to our presenting sponsor, Audible.

• 2:37Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 2:38Travis Kelce?

  Start listening today when you sign up for a free 30 day trial at audible.com/newheights.

• 2:44Speaker 02

  I love some audible.

• 2:45Travis Kelce?

  All right now, audible getting in there, sliding in there for a little. Shout out audible. We're your hosts. I'm Travis Kelce. My big brother, Jason Kelce out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Cincinnati Bearcat at Lums. Subscribe on YouTube, Wondery Plus, or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with one S. Jason, let the people know who we have coming up.

• 3:05Speaker 02

  I'm not going to beat around the bush, guys. Uh, this is a big one. It's the guest you guys have all been waiting for.

• 3:11Travis Kelce?

  That we all have been waiting for.

• 3:13Speaker 02

  You've all, I mean, really been demanding and we finally got her. Uh, one of the probably got one of the busiest schedules out there. Kaitlyn Clark is here. That's right. You heard it. That's right. You heard it. Right. She's in the building, folks, and we're going to hear a nice conversation from her in just a few seconds. And we're not going to really do too much before that because we're going to get ready to this conversation because it was fantastic. But first we are going to get to a little bit of that new news.

• 3:40Travis Kelce?

  New news.

• 3:41Speaker 02

  New news is brought to you by Accelerator, the orange ice pop. There we go. Thanks, Accelerator.

• 3:47Travis Kelce?

  Do you like, do you, you're finally?

• 3:49Speaker 02

  I do. I'm a fan of the orange. I still prefer the grenadine. I still prefer grenadine cherry ice pop, but.

• 3:56Travis Kelce?

  Okay.

• 3:56Speaker 02

  I think it's good. I'm a fan.

• 3:59Travis Kelce?

  I'm always in on a little orange soda. They call it late night with Jason Kelce premieres this Friday, January 3rd. Javis, Jason, Javis, Jason, could you give us a tease or an anecdote?

• 4:11Speaker 02

  A tease or an anecdote? Um, I don't know. I don't know what to say. I think we're going to have some awesome guests, uh, on, on hand. Uh, really, the whole purpose of this show is to just celebrate and the sport of football and, uh, you know, obviously we got playoffs coming up. Uh, this is the last, uh, week of the regular season coming up. You know, it's just honestly an excuse to get together a bunch of guys and bullshit about a sport that we all love. Do a bunch of fun, creative comedy bits with some incredible writers. Being creative is, is just a joy. And I think that we have. Between the band, between the audience, between the players and all the people that are going to be there. I think it's just gonna be a lot of fun. Incredibly intimidated by it. I'm terrified of how this is gonna go.

• 4:55Travis Kelce?

  That's such a good feeling to have.

• 4:56Speaker 02

  At the same time, it makes you feel alive. There's something about being afraid that makes you excited, right?

• 5:02Travis Kelce?

  Every time, man. So every time.

• 5:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, anyways.

• 5:05Travis Kelce?

  Well, that's awesome, man. I'm happy as hell for you, brother. I can't wait. You said something about a band and now I'm, I gotta ask, are you breaking out the sax?

• 5:13Speaker 02

  Listen, I got, you know, what these, what this is.

• 5:18Travis Kelce?

  No, not focusing. I'm still too far away to be able to read that. Oh, you got some new, uh?

• 5:23Speaker 02

  Got some reads.

• 5:24Travis Kelce?

  Got some reads. Nice.

• 5:25Speaker 02

  It probably won't happen show one. I don't know.

• 5:26Travis Kelce?

  I didn't, I didn't, no pun intended. I didn't read that on the box. I just thought in my head, what could this possibly have to do with saxophone and?

• 5:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, the reads. I bought some reads. Um, I, I still, you know, I don't know when, we got some plans. We'll see. We'll see what happens. I don't know if it's happening show one. We got some, there's a whole litany of things that could happen in this episode. So, um, anyways, excited.

• 5:48Travis Kelce?

  Again, that's Friday, January 3rd, ladies and gentlemen. They call it late night with Jason Kelce, the man, the myth, the legend. And, uh, we also will be back for our regularly scheduled episodes starting next week. Football schedule and the holidays threw us off a little bit with me playing on Christmas and having all these short games, uh, or short weeks, uh, back to back to back. So it's making it a little tough to keep knocking these episodes out with you guys. But, um, New Heights will be back talking all things, uh, NFL playoffs and whatever else comes, um, next week.

• 6:21Speaker 02

  Sounds good, bubba.

• 6:22Travis Kelce?

  And that's it for new news brought to you by accelerator. Upgrade your energy and get you some, some of this orange ice pop. Shit's fucking popping, son.

• 6:33Speaker 02

  All righty, our guest today is a six foot guard from the University of Iowa, the NCAA all time division one scoring leader, the first pick of the WNBA draft, WNBA assist leader, all star and 2024 WNBA rookie of the year. She's the most requested guest in the history of our show. Uh, and? The Time Magazine Athlete of the Year, Miss Katelyn Clark, please welcome everyone.

• 7:03Speaker 04

  I appreciate it. I'm excited. I don't get excited about many things, but this, this is on top of my list, so.

• 7:10Travis Kelce?

  We made it, Jason. We've made it.

• 7:12Speaker 02

  How many accolades did we leave off? How many accolades do you have right now at this point, Katelyn?

• 7:17Speaker 04

  I think you might have made some up. I don't know.

• 7:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure of that. I feel like you're kind of like Wayne Gretzky for basketball right now.

• 7:24Travis Kelce?

  Gretzky?

• 7:25Speaker 02

  I mean, the amount, if you go to the Wikipedia page and you look at like the list of like awards and achievements, it's like endless. So, yeah, we could, we had to limit it to this list just to get the show started.

• 7:38Speaker 04

  I appreciate it. Thank you.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  Is there any accomplishment, I guess, of all these accolades that has meant the most to you?

• 7:44Speaker 04

  Oh, gosh. That's a good question. Well, I'd give you the answer my mom would say is probably Academic All-American. She was proud of me for being a good student in college, so.

• 7:54Speaker 02

  That's a good answer. Love that answer for mom.

• 7:57Travis Kelce?

  Talking about.

• 7:58Speaker 04

  I did all right in school, so hung in there. But other than that, I mean, they're all cool, but you don't really care. It kind of just comes with it. Comes with having fun. And I think that the Time Athlete of the Year was cool, too, just because you see the list of like all the athletes that they've had prior to me. And a lot of those people I idolized growing up and LeBron's been the only other basketball player. So, and it's cool as a woman, like they haven't had many females on the cover, too. So for women's sports, it's kind of special, but you know, just kind of comes with playing the game and having fun, as you guys know.

• 8:32Travis Kelce?

  That's awesome.

• 8:32Speaker 02

  I love it. What did you, what did you study in college? What was the?

• 8:35Speaker 04

  I was in the business school. I got my degree in marketing, so.

• 8:38Speaker 02

  You're a marketing major?

• 8:39Speaker 04

  I'm a marketing.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  I'm a marketing major.

• 8:41Speaker 04

  There we go.

• 8:42Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. You guys, you guys are great at marketing.

• 8:45Speaker 04

  We're all right.

• 8:48Travis Kelce?

  You gotta figure, I gotta go on like dating shows just to get my name out there.

• 8:53Travis Kelce?

  I actually have a funny, made the dean's list like once in my life.

• 8:59Speaker 04

  Did you?

• 9:00Travis Kelce?

  It was when I got kicked out of school and it was a part of the criteria that I had to get, that I had to reach just to stay on the team.

• 9:08Speaker 04

  So you were capable of doing it. That's all that matters.

• 9:12Travis Kelce?

  Ed Kelsey always said I was capable. Just you just had to focus. You have to, you have to. You have to give it your all. No, I um, my mom was actually the one paying for my tuition at that point. So um, I had to make sure I did my mom right. I couldn't just throw away the grades. No one was paying for them. So.

• 9:28Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 9:29Travis Kelce?

  I share that with my mother.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  Let's talk about your biggest accomplishment. Uh, being a part of Chiefs Kingdom.

• 9:36Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 9:36Speaker 02

  How long have you been a part of the Kingdom?

• 9:39Speaker 04

  I'm sorry, Jason.

• 9:40Speaker 02

  You can apologize to me. I'm honorary member.

• 9:43Speaker 04

  I'm a Midwest kid, so there's, there's this picture that's been circulating a couple, from a couple, a couple of years ago when I was on Peyton and Eli's Monday night show. Where I'm in a full Chiefs outfit. I have family in Kansas City and I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, which is only three hours from Kansas City. So.

• 10:00Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 10:01Speaker 04

  That's just the, the closest NFL team. So my dad was a big Chiefs fan growing up. So people think I'm like a bandwagon Chiefs fan. I'm like, no, I was there before. Before Patrick and Travis, like, we were.

• 10:13Speaker 02

  We got some.

• 10:13Travis Kelce?

  I love it.

• 10:14Speaker 04

  We were ride or dies. So we've been big fans and now obviously all the success you guys have had has made it a lot of fun for us.

• 10:20Travis Kelce?

  Who do you, who, who was your uh, childhood like?

• 10:23Speaker 04

  My brother loved Tony Gonzalez. Like that was his guy. Yeah.

• 10:27Travis Kelce?

  What a guy.

• 10:29Speaker 02

  He was the chief.

• 10:30Speaker 04

  We would go to like one game a year growing up with my cousins down in Kansas City.

• 10:33Travis Kelce?

  That's so fun.

• 10:34Speaker 04

  And we still try to go. We went to the Christmas Day game last year. I think the year before you might have played on Christmas Eve, maybe we went to that. We were sitting outside for that one. My. My toes were like about to fall off. My fingers about to fall off. I don't get how you guys play in that type of weather, but it's fun. And like, obviously.

• 10:50Travis Kelce?

  We had heaters on the sideline. They let us chew.

• 10:53Speaker 04

  Arrowhead's not too bad. So good spot.

• 10:55Travis Kelce?

  It's a blast. You already know.

• 10:57Speaker 02

  Have you ever messed with those heaters on the sideline? Have you ever seen those things?

• 11:00Speaker 04

  So we played a basketball game outside in college, like an exhibition game.

• 11:05Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 11:06Speaker 04

  And they had those on the sidelines and I was like, I didn't really never know what they were, but they had them and they're, they get so hot, like dangerous.

• 11:14Speaker 02

  It's too hot. It's too hot.

• 11:15Speaker 04

  I know.

• 11:15Travis Kelce?

  I've seen, yeah. It's funny. You'll see, you'll see some guys throw on those winter coats and if it gets too close to the heaters, you just hear them pop. They're just like.

• 11:24Speaker 04

  Really?

• 11:24Travis Kelce?

  You'll just see feathers start flying everywhere.

• 11:27Speaker 04

  Oh, my gosh. I had to tell them to like, turn it off. I'm like, just let it be like a normal bench.

• 11:32Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, I'm not, I'm out on, I'm out on the heaters. It has to be like below 20 degrees for me even to think about sitting on the heaters. That's why I'm sitting on the water coolers right now. Every, every time we're off the field, I, I hate it. I can't feel too hot.

• 11:44Speaker 04

  For sure.

• 11:45Travis Kelce?

  If I feel too hot, I'm gonna start to like, it's like a heated blanket or something. I'm gonna start falling asleep.

• 11:51Speaker 04

  I think they like said like, yeah, there's an air, a fire marshal like over there like watching, make sure it doesn't catch on fire.

• 11:58Travis Kelce?

  What about if we just?

• 12:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:00Travis Kelce?

  Do our own safety check or just cut these things. Yeah.

• 12:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 12:03Speaker 02

  So you said your brother, your brother's favorite player was Tony Gonzalez. Who's your favorite player or, or is?

• 12:09Speaker 04

  Oh, is? I mean, obviously Travis is up there.

• 12:16Speaker 04

  But I, I'm obviously a big Patrick fan too.

• 12:19Speaker 02

  How can you not be?

• 12:20Speaker 04

  Like the both of you, you're pretty great.

• 12:23Speaker 02

  I'm here.

• 12:24Speaker 04

  But it's been fun and obviously I'm, I've known Brett Veach for a while. It's actually kind of crazy. So when I was in college.

• 12:30Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 12:31Speaker 04

  We played the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis and it was at the time of the Combine. So Brett was staying in our hotel. And that's kind of how I first like got to know him, like my sophomore year of college. And then we kind of have just stayed in touch ever since. So.

• 12:45Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, Brett's the man.

• 12:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, he's obviously done really well and he's fun. He's cool too. So.

• 12:50Travis Kelce?

  Oh, the whole family is the Veach family is the best. I love.

• 12:53Speaker 04

  Good people.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  When I first got into the league, Veach was like Andy's assistant in Philadelphia.

• 12:57Travis Kelce?

  How crazy is that?

• 12:58Speaker 02

  To see where he's at now and the success he's had. It's pretty awesome.

• 13:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:02Speaker 02

  But yeah.

• 13:02Travis Kelce?

  Eagles had all this right there in there.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  Don't shut up. You guys are killing it. We're doing just fine.

• 13:09Travis Kelce?

  You guys are great right now.

• 13:11Speaker 04

  That's funny.

• 13:11Speaker 02

  All right, Travis earmuffs. Put your earmuffs, take your earmuffs off.

• 13:15Travis Kelce?

  They technically are on.

• 13:16Speaker 02

  Okay, well, take your earmuffs off. Uh, what do we, what do we think about 2024 Chiefs, Caitlin? What do we think about where the team's at?

• 13:23Speaker 04

  I'm feeling good.

• 13:25Speaker 02

  You feeling good?

• 13:26Speaker 04

  I'm feeling good. I mean, we're what 13 and 13 and one right now.

• 13:30Speaker 02

  Pretty good.

• 13:31Travis Kelce?

  Oh, did someone say 13 and one?

• 13:33Speaker 04

  That's, that's not too bad. Um, but also like you guys have made it interesting as a fan. There you go.

• 13:40Speaker 02

  We're just keeping everybody at the edge of their seat.

• 13:42Speaker 04

  I know. And I think that's what I appreciate about you guys the most. And like you and Patrick especially is like, you guys just have that edge to you, like that clutch factor. And like, a lot of people don't have that. So when you get the ball with a minute 30, you need to go 80 yards and score. Like, I'm feeling pretty good, but.

• 13:56Travis Kelce?

  We like the ball in Pat Mahomes' hands for sure.

• 13:58Speaker 04

  We do.

• 13:58Travis Kelce?

  Our, our, our defense has been saving our ass a lot. Let, let alone our like field goal block team and our like, yeah. So it's been a full team effort this year.

• 14:08Speaker 02

  Is it 10 games consecutive one for like single score games or something like that?

• 14:13Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 14:14Travis Kelce?

  I don't know.

• 14:15Speaker 02

  There's like some crazy stats, like the first team ever to do that, but.

• 14:17Speaker 04

  Something like that.

• 14:18Speaker 02

  You killed it. Great performance. What? So, uh, last time 92%er saw you, uh, with Travis was the heiress tour. How was that?

• 14:26Travis Kelce?

  Oh, that was selfless fun.

• 14:27Speaker 04

  Electric. It's, it was great. My mom was like begging me to take her. She's like, I, I gotta go. Like, everybody's talking about it. And I'm like, okay, okay.

• 14:36Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, it was right there in Indianapolis.

• 14:38Speaker 04

  Yeah. But I literally live right downtown too, like right next to Lucas Oil. So I'm like,

• 14:42Travis Kelce?

  Nice.

• 14:43Speaker 04

  The night I didn't go, I'm like, I'm on my balcony trying to listen. But no, obviously it's just a great show and a lot of fun. And, uh, full Swifty turned my mom into a full Swifty now.

• 14:54Travis Kelce?

  Nice.

• 14:54Speaker 04

  Two of my cousins were there too. So good time.

• 14:57Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 14:57Speaker 04

  Good time.

• 14:58Travis Kelce?

  Was that, you mentioned that was like your second night going to it, right?

• 15:03Speaker 04

  Yeah. Second night in a row. And that was my third show. I went early on when Taylor first went on tour. Um, in Minnesota at US Bank. Went in for early concerts and that was a lot of fun. Went with some of my college friends and we had a, we had a good time together.

• 15:18Speaker 02

  It's hard, it's hard to not have a good time at a concert.

• 15:21Speaker 04

  I don't know how you couldn't have a good time at something like that.

• 15:24Travis Kelce?

  This is so fun, man.

• 15:25Speaker 02

  Well, uh, we mentioned earlier that, um, a few weeks ago, you were named the Time Magazine Athlete of the Year. Time asked you to define your year in one word and you said historic. We can do better. We can give you two words to define your year. Uh, what would, what would they be if you could do that?

• 15:41Speaker 04

  Two words?

• 15:42Speaker 02

  Two words.

• 15:44Speaker 04

  That is hard.

• 15:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, one word easier.

• 15:47Speaker 04

  And I can't use historic?

• 15:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I guess you can. It's your, it's your definition.

• 15:53Travis Kelce?

  It's yours.

• 15:54Speaker 02

  Majorly historic.

• 15:56Speaker 04

  I would say like, I don't know, life changing, maybe?

• 16:00Speaker 02

  That's a great one. I think that's.

• 16:02Speaker 04

  All in a good way. Like, I mean, things just change really fast. Like, as you guys know, like, that's just how the world works. And especially with social media, people see a lot of your life, but that's what makes it fun and why I've had so many cool opportunities too. So it's crazy. Like, looking back at a year ago today or around this time, like, I was just beginning my senior year of college. And obviously, you know, people knew who we were and people attended our games, but it's obviously not in the magnitude that it is now.

• 16:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:30Speaker 04

  So like, life just changes fast, but that's, that's what makes it fun and cool. And, you know, quickly started a new chapter of my life too, like moving here to Indianapolis and feel lucky. I'm still in the Midwest. I know you guys like the Midwest, so.

• 16:42Travis Kelce?

  I think, yeah, I've been in the Midwest my entire life. Jason's officially an East Coaster now.

• 16:47Speaker 02

  Philly of all the East Coast cities kinda has like some Midwest feel to it.

• 16:53Travis Kelce?

  The most west of the east.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  I don't think Philly wants to hear that. They'll probably hate that I said that, but whatever.

• 16:57Speaker 04

  They're not gonna like that comment. They want to be far from the Midwest.

• 17:01Speaker 02

  No doubt. I mean, it was just a crazy year because you go all the way up to the national championship game and then you're playing right away.

• 17:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:08Speaker 02

  You know, one of my coaches early on in my career said, you know, your rookie year is always so hard because you're in a new city, you're in a new place, you're with a new team, new coaches. There's so much that's not part of the routine that you're so used to. And you had that as like, magnified. I mean, are you looking forward this year to like, kinda having some like, I don't know, more of a routine?

• 17:31Speaker 02

  You had the familiarity?

• 17:32Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, it's just so unlike any other professional sport, really, from the standpoint of, so I played in the national championship and I basically went to the draft right after, got picked. And then you basically pack up and move. Like, you're moving in April, you don't even finish senior year of college. And I guess for you guys, like, what was it? You go to the combine? How long do you have to prepare for the combine? A few months? And then?

• 17:56Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 17:56Speaker 04

  Then you get drafted and you still got a little time to get acclimated to the new city.

• 18:00Speaker 02

  For sure.

• 18:01Speaker 04

  You have camp, whatever. Like, it's not like that. Like, camp for us is like a week and a half.

• 18:06Speaker 02

  Let's go play.

• 18:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, but I think it was good a little bit too. Like you don't have time to overthink things. Like it's just like boom, boom, boom, boom. Like you're just on to the next. But at the same time, like you don't like, I feel like I never really ended the chapter of college. Like it was just like you left, but maybe that's good. You don't have a lot of time to think about it. So I think that's definitely the weirdest part of, you know, women's professional basketball and obviously college basketball too, is just that change. But that's kind of how it has to be too. So it's just different, but I think I feel lucky too, because we had the Olympic break. So I got a month off in the middle of the season because we had to pause the WNBA season because, you know, the 12 girls go, go and play in the Olympics and everybody else, you're not doing much. So got like a month off, which I really needed, obviously, because I'd been playing basketball for

• 18:53Speaker 04

  just a year straight. But obviously so much different from the NFL or the NBA or whatever it is.

• 19:00Travis Kelce?

  I remember my, uh, coming into the NFL, one of the biggest challenges for me was like, kind of like finding my like professionalism in a sense. I am, I was such a leader on my team at Cincinnati. At least I felt like I was like the, the main one of the voice of the team. Um, and when I got to Kansas City, there was guys that had just been perennial Pro Bowlers and guys that had already had that culture set. Um, and then on top of that Coach Reed and I, I struggled trying to find my lane and like really like feeling like I could give a piece to the team or like find a role on the team. Was there anything like that that happened to you early on, knowing that it all happened so fast?

• 19:40Speaker 04

  For sure. And like you come in as a rookie and like you said, like you're trying to figure out a new environment, new teammates. Like you don't want to say too much. You don't want to say too little and it's just so hard. But like in my scenario, and obviously you guys too, like you're already highly thought of. Like people are turning to you to like be something or be someone. So it's hard. Like you're trying to find your, get your feet wet, but also not do too much. And I think that's kind of what I struggled in early on is like, I don't know what to say. I don't know how to say it. I don't know how they're going to react.

• 20:09Speaker 02

  For not knowing you nailed it.

• 20:14Speaker 04

  But also like I had a lot of really good vets around me too. So I feel very grateful for that. And we've had a fairly young team too. So like people had been through it fairly recently. So they knew how I felt, but like, I feel like that definitely is a huge challenge. And that goes for whatever professional sport like you're trying to learn, but also people are looking at you like, you got to perform and like be what they drafted you to be, and that can be tough.

• 20:36Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. I remember Jason, you got tossed into the, into the fire early your rookie year. And especially because you guys didn't even have off season workouts. Yeah.

• 20:45Speaker 02

  So we, we missed the whole off season workout. And if you weren't a first or second day pick, you didn't get the playbook. So I got the playbook like two days before training camp. So we just started right from there. But that was one thing you mentioned the vets and I think, you know, there's for me at least, there was a lot. Some vets are, were incredible. Some of the vets, obviously you're competing for jobs. So there's a little bit there, but you lean so much as a young player on your vets and you lean so much from like, even just like in Philly, there's so many great players that played for the Eagles that like Harold Carmichael, who was a legendary Philadelphia Eagle, was like always around and willing to lend advice or anything.

• 21:26Speaker 02

  Did you have many former players or current players like reach out to you that really helped you in transitioning into the WNBA?

• 21:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, there was, you know, quite a few. Um, somebody that I, that comes to the top of my head is Tamika Catchings, who was an MVP in the WNBA.

• 21:42Travis Kelce?

  Yep.

• 21:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:43Speaker 04

  She won their championship here. I think, I want to say 2012, when the Fever won their championship. She was like, what made the Indiana Fever really good? Like that was our prime. That was when we were really good. And then after Tamika retired, the Fever kind of went down a little bit as every team does. Once your, you know, franchise player retires and moves away from basketball. And she's still really big here in the Indianapolis community. And she was one of the first people to text me after I got picked and still checks in on me. Um, so it's cool. It's like somebody that's not in your building every single day, but it means so much to your community and to the organization. And to have that, like, she's like a legend. Her, her number's up in the rafters. Like that's somebody I idolized and looked up to. And for her to just take, you know, two seconds to check in on me and see how I'm doing.

• 22:25Speaker 04

  And, um, that's obviously really special. So I would certainly say her. Um, and we still have that relationship and it's still growing and she still comes around now and then. And her championship trophy that she won like sits in our locker room. It's like right next to my locker. I'm like, great. The coaches probably laid that down.

• 22:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, right. Hey, no pressure.

• 22:46Speaker 04

  Yeah. So I have to look at it every day.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  These are the shoes.

• 22:50Speaker 04

  It's got like its own like glass case. I'm like great.

• 22:53Travis Kelce?

  Hell yeah, better. Just a little motivation. This is what we're working for.

• 22:58Speaker 04

  Absolutely. So, but yeah.

• 23:00Speaker 02

  We were not drafted in the first round. What was it like being a first round pick?

• 23:03Speaker 04

  Oh, well, I felt like so it's crazy. Like I, because of COVID, I could have actually gone back to school for a fifth year.

• 23:12Travis Kelce?

  Were you considering that?

• 23:14Speaker 04

  Well, early on, yes.

• 23:16Travis Kelce?

  It looked like you were having a good old time over there.

• 23:20Speaker 04

  I mean, it's college. Like you're there with your friends and like the game's just easier. Like it's just how it is. And you don't want that chapter of your life to end. Like it's fun. You do fun things. You guys know how it is. And it's easygoing and whatever.

• 23:33Speaker 02

  When I imagine, I imagine that decisions probably may have made even harder now that there is on NIL. Like when Travis and I played, like there was no ability to make any money. It was like way different.

• 23:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:45Travis Kelce?

  Capitalize on this check.

• 23:47Speaker 04

  But yeah, so I was like, kind of considering that. But then I got to the point where I was like, yeah, I'm totally leaving. Like I, I know this is going to be the end for me. Just like, I felt very content in that. And then obviously like I have a very good feel that I was probably going to be the first pick, but like you're still sitting there and like you, everybody gets nervous and jittery, no matter where you're projected or what you're going to be like. This is a moment you've always dreamed of as a kid.

• 24:08Travis Kelce?

  Oh, Jason was a train wreck. Are you kidding me? He was, guy was pacing back and forth in the room.

• 24:14Speaker 04

  Yeah. Like, how did you guys feel going into, going into the draft?

• 24:18Speaker 02

  We, I knew, I guess Travis, do you want to, I guess I'll go first. We'll go chronological. I'll go first and you go. All right. So first day I wasn't doing anything because I knew I wasn't going to get drafted.

• 24:29Speaker 02

  I was just like, man, this is cool. Watching the draft. Um, second day for, for, I think the later on guys, you have, your agent is like taking any inkling of like positivity you can. So he's like, there's a chance you'll go in the third round, even though there's no chance.

• 24:46Speaker 02

  So I'm like watching that. I'm like, all right. But the third day. Trav, me, Trav, mom and dad, Uncle Don, we all went bowling. Cause I didn't want to sit there and watch it go by and watch a bunch of people get picked that like, it's like just pissed me off even more. So it's like, all right, I'll just go bowling, ignore it. Uh, and somebody will call me at some point. We finished bowling and I still hadn't got a call. So it was super awkward. It was like, all right, let's just go back to the house.

• 25:14Travis Kelce?

  We paid for the two hours.

• 25:15Speaker 02

  We did the two hours.

• 25:17Travis Kelce?

  Do we keep fucking rolling these things?

• 25:18Speaker 02

  The third day was still going, yeah. So it was like the sixth round, we went back to my house and then, uh, you know, finally got a call from a, a six, one, O number, I believe it was, or was it two, one, six, two, one, five? I think it was, yeah, it might've been two, one, five. Either way, Philadelphia area code popped up and so it all kind of went down there. Dad came rushing and crying. Uh, there's nothing better than, uh, and then you can hear when it finally, cause I was in a separate room and they were all in the, uh, living room, kind of watching on TV. And, uh, I was still on the phone and then I knew when they all knew, cause they all started cheering in the living room. So that was exciting, but it was nerve wracking until the moment you get picked. And then it's like, Right.

• 26:00Speaker 02

  You forget about all the other crap. You're just like, yeah, I'm in the NFL now.

• 26:04Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. My situation was a little different because I did have the year that I missed, uh, playing, but that ended up being the year that I switched into the tight end room. So it was, uh, it was a perfect match for me. Um, that's when I really thought that, oh, wow, I actually love this game. Like before I was just back there playing the old backyard sport. Now I like have like, I don't know. I felt like I could give more to the game, give more to the team. I was in Pittsburgh because that's where my agent was, had all the friends and family out. I knew first round wasn't there, but I always thought in the back of my mind, I, I could, like all the tight ends that were, that were going to get drafted, um, I could play with those guys, you know? I might not have shown on film that I'm better than them, but I know that I'm, I've shown, uh, that I could play in the NFL just as much as they can. Yeah. And ended up just, uh,

• 26:48Travis Kelce?

  getting kind of like Jason said, getting told that maybe second round here, if this guy doesn't get picked, they're thinking about you. And, uh, and finally got a call from, uh, a Missouri number thinking I was going to St. Louis. Cause I had no idea that Kansas City was even in Missouri. And, um, from there it was, uh, it was Coach Reed on the phone telling me, uh, you better not mess this up.

• 27:09Speaker 04

  You didn't?

• 27:11Travis Kelce?

  No, I didn't. I almost did a few times.

• 27:14Speaker 04

  How many rounds are there in the NFL draft? What like?

• 27:16Speaker 02

  So seven now.

• 27:18Speaker 04

  Seven.

• 27:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's been seven for a long time. There used to be like something crazy.

• 27:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's like the MLB where they had like a thousand rounds.

• 27:26Speaker 02

  Exactly. Yeah.

• 27:27Speaker 04

  Insane.

• 27:28Speaker 02

  Now it's seven and then undrafted and it really, once it gets to like this later rounds, sometimes it's better to even be undrafted.

• 27:34Speaker 04

  Yeah. So you can just try to pick a good situation to go to.

• 27:37Speaker 02

  Exactly. Yeah. You get autonomy in that, but.

• 27:39Speaker 04

  Right.

• 27:40Speaker 02

  Yeah. What was harder? High school, college, or going from college to the pros?

• 27:45Speaker 04

  Oh, that's a good question.

• 27:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:47Speaker 04

  Well, my high school to college transition was so weird because it was COVID. So like, I didn't even know when I was going to go to college. It's like, I didn't even like technically graduate high school. Like I did obviously, but like I didn't ever walk really. We had like an outdoor thing, but other than that, like it was, it was so weird. And then like two weeks before they're like, we're in the summer and Iowa was like, yeah, like we want you to come to campus. And literally the only people there were like us and the football team and men's basketball.

• 28:14Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 28:15Speaker 04

  It was so weird. Like in the dorms, it was literally just athletes in the dorms, no RAs. It was like a huge like mansion with just college kids running wild.

• 28:23Speaker 02

  I'm not gonna lie, that sounds so much fun. Sign me up.

• 28:29Speaker 04

  It was a bit concerning, but it was also, it was a lot of fun. Um, I don't know if they knew that. I still don't think they know that that was the situation. At least that was the situation where on a few floors that I was near, but it was a good time, honestly. And it was just so weird. Like I didn't have that normal college experience. Like I think my first semester, like I was taking everything online. Just trying not to get COVID because we're testing every day and just trying to play and.

• 28:54Travis Kelce?

  Gosh, thank God we're out of that.

• 28:56Speaker 04

  I know. So just kind of crazy. But, and then obviously going from college to the pros, I think it's just like the time span. That's just what's so weird about it. It's just so short and condensed. Like you don't have much time, but.

• 29:07Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 29:07Speaker 04

  At that point, it's, it is what it is. Everybody has to deal with the same thing. So that's what I told myself is like, there's no, no point in complaining. Everybody's dealing with it. It's not any different.

• 29:15Travis Kelce?

  It's a good mindset to have.

• 29:17Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 29:18Travis Kelce?

  What's your, uh? What's your welcome to the WNBA moment? If you could have one.

• 29:22Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 29:23Speaker 02

  Welcome to the W.

• 29:24Speaker 04

  I tell people this, I, it was early on, I want to say it was like our 10th game of the year. We're playing in New York versus Liberty, who ended up winning the championship this year.

• 29:32Travis Kelce?

  Yep.

• 29:32Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 29:33Speaker 04

  And somebody set a screen on me and like I hit my ear like just perfect on, on the girl where like my eardrum popped and like ruptured. And I knew it, I knew it right away because I've done it before and I was just like, it hurts so bad. I don't know if you guys have ever done that, but.

• 29:47Speaker 02

  I've done it. How did you do it before? Can I guess, can I guess?

• 29:52Speaker 04

  I was too, oh yeah, I guess. It was very midwestern.

• 29:54Speaker 02

  You did it in water, you did it in water, something with water.

• 29:57Speaker 04

  I got launched, I got launched off a tube.

• 29:59Travis Kelce?

  Why did you just get so excited? What are you, some brainiac?

• 30:02Speaker 02

  That's how I did mine. I went off the diving board, tried to do as many flips as I could and smacked my side of my head in the Heights High School swimming pool.

• 30:12Travis Kelce?

  Jason was a male swim cadet, so he had to be.

• 30:14Speaker 02

  He wasn't a swim cadet. Don't put, put me on blast like that, Travis.

• 30:19Speaker 04

  That's funny, but yeah, I got launched off a tube in the middle of the lake. I was like underwater. I'm like, am I okay?

• 30:26Speaker 02

  That's some Midwest stuff right there.

• 30:28Speaker 04

  But yeah, so that was my, my welcome to the W moment.

• 30:31Travis Kelce?

  Wait, so when you pop that, you pop your drum, what happens to that?

• 30:34Speaker 04

  There's like not really much you can do. It takes like months to heal. So like after the season, the doctor had to like go back in and look and see if it closed. And if it doesn't close, you have to have like a minor procedure, but lucky enough it closed, so I was fine, but.

• 30:46Speaker 02

  Oh, thank gosh.

• 30:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, you have to like be careful about like getting water in there. You can't go in lakes and pools. Like it's, it's, it's weird. Sometimes it'll bleed when it pops, but mine didn't thankfully. So yeah, it's just really annoying. Like your hearing is like really off and Jason, you're probably noticed. Like your hearing is just kind of off for like a few, few weeks.

• 31:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like muffled and just like feels weird for sure. What, um, like, cause you brought this up because you're from the Midwest. I love the fact that you hurt your ear tubing. What is, are you a lakes or are you an ocean?

• 31:15Travis Kelce?

  We're big, we're big bro, we're pro get outside.

• 31:18Speaker 02

  Big time ocean and I'm, I, I.

• 31:20Speaker 04

  I love both. It's hard because like my family would always vacation down to Florida. Like that's for spring break. Like that's what we would do. I'd go with my cousins. So like, we loved the beach. My parents are beach people, but like you just grow up around lakes in the Midwest. Like you just, that's what, that's what you do.

• 31:36Travis Kelce?

  What beach down there in Florida?

• 31:37Speaker 04

  St. Pete's.

• 31:38Travis Kelce?

  St. Pete's, nice. We were Marco Island.

• 31:41Speaker 04

  Okay, yeah. So that was our spot, but I love lakes and they're just easier and I'm not as scared going in the water. Like I'm not going to it in the ocean. For sure. I don't know what's down there. I'm not messing with that salt water. Exactly. At a lake, you feel a little more confident. Um, but yeah.

• 31:56Travis Kelce?

  Was a snake gonna get me?

• 31:58Speaker 04

  How about you guys?

• 31:58Travis Kelce?

  Doubt it. I'm the lake guy for sure.

• 32:00Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, like you said, I like both. We actually, we have a, a shore town in Jersey. They call it the shore.

• 32:08Speaker 04

  Jersey shore.

• 32:09Speaker 02

  Jersey shore. Not, not the North Jersey shore. On the show, we're South Jersey. We're I've been, I've been to the shore.

• 32:18Travis Kelce?

  All the shores over there in Jersey are the same.

• 32:21Speaker 04

  He's trying to hype one up over the other.

• 32:24Speaker 02

  But yeah, we've, I do love the shore. I love the ocean and we used to, and we grew up going to Florida, but there's just something about lakes. And I, in particular, I like four season lakes. I like when the lake freezes over. We played hockey growing up. I like going on snowmobiles. I like the summers. I like hiking. Like I think there's so much.

• 32:44Travis Kelce?

  Big hiker.

• 32:45Speaker 02

  All right. I, I, I have been hiking and I enjoy it.

• 32:49Speaker 04

  That's his new hobby. He picked it, had to pick it up.

• 32:51Travis Kelce?

  I didn't know you were a hike. Well, you did. You've hiked Mount, Mount Kilimanjaro.

• 32:56Speaker 02

  That's right. I'm lighter now.

• 32:57Travis Kelce?

  He's a retired athlete. He just picks up hobbies.

• 33:01Speaker 02

  All right. We don't need to put me on blast. All right. Here we go.

• 33:06Speaker 05

  They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a Reese's. Like this commercial break. Did you need 15 seconds away from music or 15 seconds to eat a Reese's? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for a Reese's.

• 33:21Speaker 02

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• 33:24Travis Kelce?

  Not every gym needs to feel like a tryout. Planet Fitness is judgment free.

• 33:28Speaker 02

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• 33:35Travis Kelce?

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• 33:43Speaker 02

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• 33:48Travis Kelce?

  And if you get the black card, unlock recovery amenities. Uh, plus. Bring a friend with you every single visit.

• 33:54Speaker 02

  Get started today at Planet Fitness or learn more at PlanetFitness.com. Thank you to our partner, Royal Caribbean.

• 34:03Travis Kelce?

  Dude, have you seen this? Royal Caribbean just dropped the Legend of the Seas. It's the biggest cruise ship on the planet. Like, nothing's even close to being this big. And it's sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, starting this November.

• 34:18Speaker 02

  That's right. This thing is stacked. Seven pools, more places to eat than you can even count. I mean, they have something for everybody.

• 34:27Travis Kelce?

  Like, bring the kids, bring mom and dad, shoot, bring the whole crew. Everybody's got a spot. That's what makes it special.

• 34:34Speaker 02

  And the entertainment, Latin music, ice skating, full-on Broadway shows. It's pretty amazing. Pretty much everything you want in one place. Oh, and did I mention there's a water park?

• 34:43Travis Kelce?

  You didn't, and that's, that'd be the kicker for me.

• 34:46Speaker 02

  I love a water park.

• 34:47Travis Kelce?

  But the crazy one? Crown's Edge, a ropes course off the side of the ship. Not for the faint of heart, brother.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  They've also got Playmaker Sports Bar and Arcade, so that means games on every screen. I love a good arcade sports place combination.

• 35:05Travis Kelce?

  All right, Captain, get the family on the new Legend of the Seas, sailing November 2026, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

• 35:13Speaker 02

  Visit RoyalCaribbean.com to learn more.

• 35:16Speaker 04

  You guys played hockey? I didn't even know that.

• 35:19Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, Jason played a little longer than I did. Once I got to high school, I switched over to basketball, because it was the same season.

• 35:26Speaker 02

  Trav hurt the entire Cleveland Heights hockey community, because he was the best hockey player ever in Cleveland Heights youth hockey. He was very dominant, and then when he chose basketball, it just really deflated.

• 35:39Speaker 04

  You had to be a pretty solid basketball player.

• 35:43Travis Kelce?

  I just couldn't dribble. We were known for basketball, and all the basketball games were absolutely rocking.

• 35:48Speaker 04

  Really? Sold out?

• 35:49Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, and I had, I had hoop dreams, so I chose basketball. But, um, yeah, I definitely, I definitely loved playing hockey the most. Hockey was so much fun. It was probably because of the guys that I played it with, more so than actually getting out there, but, um, yeah.

• 36:05Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 36:06Travis Kelce?

  That's half of the youth teams I was on anyways, but.

• 36:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, I just like, I like to put a helmet on.

• 36:10Travis Kelce?

  You get on the ice and play a little or what? Were you always a Hooper or what other sports did you play?

• 36:14Speaker 04

  I played soccer growing up. It was soccer and basketball. Honestly, like hockey isn't really that big in Iowa. Like it wasn't really a big thing, which is kind of weird. Like you think it would be, but it was more of, nobody really did it.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  I feel like wrestling's, wrestling's so big in Iowa. So like all the guys wrestle.

• 36:31Speaker 04

  Wrestling is huge. Like all the Iowa football players, like usually are really good high school wrestlers.

• 36:35Speaker 02

  Tristan Wirfs, freaking Tyler Lindham bomb.

• 36:39Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 36:39Travis Kelce?

  Jason was a wrestler.

• 36:41Speaker 04

  Athletic, but big and athletic.

• 36:43Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 36:43Speaker 04

  Great wrestlers, state champion wrestlers, but then would be like freak O linemen or like good tight ends or whatever it was.

• 36:50Speaker 02

  I love watching me two big old muscle bound dudes wrestle it out. There's nothing better.

• 36:57Travis Kelce?

  I want to see the heavyweights.

• 36:59Speaker 04

  That's funny.

• 37:00Speaker 02

  How did you end up at Iowa? You almost ended up at Notre Dame.

• 37:03Speaker 04

  I did, yeah.

• 37:04Speaker 02

  What led?

• 37:05Travis Kelce?

  Nice.

• 37:05Speaker 02

  To the decision to go to Iowa?

• 37:07Speaker 04

  So I was, I basically narrowed it down pretty early on when I was going through my college recruitment that I wanted to be like in the Midwest. Just kind of a homebody, family person, just wanted to stay fairly close to home. So that narrowed a lot of stuff down. And I visited like Oregon and Texas and a few other places and I liked them, but it was just like, I knew it was too far. And then visited Notre Dame a bunch of times. Um, and I was like, I love Notre Dame and I like, as a kid, like you want to go to Notre Dame. Like it's the same with Notre Dame football. It's like, it's like the coolest thing in the world. Like it's, it's Notre Dame. It has that tradition. They've had so many great players go through there in every single sport, but like, I just knew like something like you could just like, I could feel it in my gut. Like I was like, ah, I'm not supposed to go there.

• 37:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:50Speaker 04

  So I, I picked Iowa and we were, Iowa was really good at women's basketball before I went there too. Like made a few sweet 16s, made the lead eight. Um, our coach had been there for quite a while. Um, but they hadn't been to the final four since like 1992. So I wanted to go somewhere that was good, but like maybe hadn't been like a blue blood for say, in like quite a few years. And kind of help them get back to that. And then it was obviously my home state too, and two hours from where I grew up. So perfect distance where like your parents can't show up, but also like you could go home if you wanted to.

• 38:19Speaker 02

  No doubt. It's important.

• 38:22Speaker 04

  It just kind of all worked out perfect. And obviously I, I made an okay decision and it worked out pretty well, but.

• 38:27Speaker 02

  Worked out real well.

• 38:28Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, dude.

• 38:29Speaker 02

  Did you take visits to Notre Dame and Iowa?

• 38:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, I took quite a few to both. Yeah.

• 38:35Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 38:35Speaker 04

  What was your guys' dream schools growing up?

• 38:39Speaker 04

  Or did you even have one? Cause I like, I wouldn't even say Notre Dame was like my dream school. It was more so like, I just thought it was super cool. Like.

• 38:45Travis Kelce?

  No, for sure.

• 38:46Speaker 02

  I would say dad, dad was a big Notre Dame fan. He grew up Catholic and he went to Catholic school growing up. I think that like, anybody who's like Irish Catholic, like that's like the like, especially in the football world. And then Ohio State was really good.

• 39:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:01Travis Kelce?

  Ohio State was probably the, the one school that I was like, as a kid, I was like, that's the school.

• 39:06Speaker 02

  No, you like Michigan. You just stop.

• 39:08Travis Kelce?

  I like Michigan.

• 39:09Speaker 02

  You were always a Michigan fan.

• 39:11Speaker 04

  You can't like Michigan and Ohio.

• 39:12Speaker 02

  Exactly, exactly, Kayla.

• 39:14Travis Kelce?

  The thing, the thing is, is I can, I can, and I did.

• 39:17Speaker 04

  I mean, you can, but like Michigan and Ohio State fans are not going to be happy about that.

• 39:23Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 39:23Travis Kelce?

  I didn't go to either one of them, so it's all good.

• 39:26Speaker 02

  I will say this was when he was younger. This was when he was younger. By the time he was in high school, he was on the Ohio State, like, it was just like, anyways.

• 39:34Speaker 04

  Ohio State Stadium is legit. When we would go to play Ohio State, I would be like, we would drive past and I'm like, it would make Iowa Stadium look so small and it still seats 70,000, but like that place is just gigantic.

• 39:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, I, I do love Iowa Stadium though. There's something like very awesome there. Obviously the thing they do with the children's hospital.

• 39:52Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:53Speaker 02

  Is awesome.

• 39:54Speaker 04

  The wave is really cool.

• 39:55Speaker 02

  What's, I'm trying to remember the name of it. I, I watched the game. I took a visit to Iowa.

• 39:59Speaker 04

  Kinnick. Yeah.

• 40:00Speaker 02

  Kinnick. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 40:01Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 40:02Speaker 02

  Great atmosphere.

• 40:03Speaker 04

  It's great. And the wave is pretty awesome because the children's hospital looks right over on the, on the stadium. So it's, it's cool. It's always been, been a thing, but um, the wave has really become a thing, probably in the last eight years, I want to say, because we have a kid captain for every game because the hospital is such a big deal. And it's usually a kid battling some sort of disease or has beaten some sort of disease, not always cancer, but whatever it is. And that's always fun. They get to pick a song that plays after the first quarter and I get the chills every time. It's, it's sick. It's probably one of the best traditions in all of sports, if not the best, honestly.

• 40:36Speaker 02

  Wait, so what do you, what's this thing about the wave? The wave just started?

• 40:39Speaker 04

  So, yeah, so after the first quarter, everybody turns because the, the children's hospital like looks on top of the football stadium and so.

• 40:47Speaker 02

  I remember seeing a wave.

• 40:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 40:49Speaker 02

  Oh, I thought you were talking about, I thought you were talking about the wave. Like, can they start with a wave, incorporating the wave?

• 40:56Speaker 04

  You, maybe we can get that started.

• 40:58Travis Kelce?

  Maybe you're on to something, Jason.

• 41:00Speaker 04

  Iowa fans are gonna be fired up now. They're gonna be doing it at the same time.

• 41:04Travis Kelce?

  Exact.

• 41:07Speaker 02

  So stupid.

• 41:07Speaker 04

  But no, it's pretty cool.

• 41:09Travis Kelce?

  We heard you got your first recruiting letter in seventh grade.

• 41:13Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 41:13Travis Kelce?

  Is this true?

• 41:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, so at the time, like.

• 41:17Travis Kelce?

  That's insane.

• 41:18Speaker 02

  It's insane.

• 41:18Travis Kelce?

  Were you playing with high schoolers at this point?

• 41:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's honestly sad. Like, we're college, like, recruitment has kind of gone. It's just insane, but also.

• 41:26Speaker 02

  I got you.

• 41:27Speaker 04

  I feel very fortunate. Like, my parents were just, like, they told my older brother, like, go get the mail. Like, we don't want your sister to see that. They, like, wanted me to be in seventh grade and, like, enjoy middle school and, like, hang out with your friends. Like, you shouldn't be worrying about where you're going to college.

• 41:42Speaker 02

  I love that so much.

• 41:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, so I didn't really take any visits until, like, after my freshman year of college, and then I didn't decide until my senior year. So, I was never in a rush, and my parents did a really good job of, like, make sure, you know, have a good circle around me. Like, it wasn't always about college recruitment. I wasn't, like, posting my offers. Like, also, that wasn't really a thing when I was growing up, so.

• 42:01Speaker 02

  But it is now. I mean, it was, it had to be close to when you were growing up. I mean.

• 42:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was close. Like, people were starting to do it. Like, post, like, oh, I got an offer from here. I got an offer from here.

• 42:11Speaker 02

  And especially in basketball.

• 42:12Speaker 04

  Now it's all you see on social media. It's, like, only people talk about. It's crazy. But obviously, times have changed too, but.

• 42:18Travis Kelce?

  Oh, times have changed.

• 42:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, seventh grade was wild. And I was playing up, like, two years, so I was playing with high schoolers. Um, but yeah, I didn't really, like, think anything of it. Like, I was just going out there and hooping and having fun, and it's kind of just what came with it.

• 42:33Speaker 02

  How much basketball did you play? Because nowadays, like, these kids play, it's like, nonstop. It's like.

• 42:39Speaker 04

  I know.

• 42:39Speaker 02

  It's crazy.

• 42:40Speaker 04

  Crazy.

• 42:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:42Speaker 04

  It is crazy. And I, so I played AAU, and then I played for my high school team, but my eight, my mom would be like, she is not playing more than, like, three games or two games in one day. Like, that's crazy, because sometimes they would want me to play, like, for the seventh grade team and the eighth. Great team. So my parents were like really good about that. Like they didn't want me to lose the love of it. Like you don't want to get burned out. Like you still want to be having fun when you're doing it as a pro. If you're lucky enough and maybe as a kid, I was like, mom, no, like I can keep going like I can be playing. But looking back, like I'm very fortunate for that because I haven't lost that fun of it and that passion for it. And always wanting to get better. And sometimes that's why people get burned out is because they did it too much as a kid and their parents forced it on them or whoever forced it on them too much.

• 43:25Speaker 04

  And that was never something I really had to deal with. So I feel very fortunate.

• 43:29Travis Kelce?

  Got to have that balance. That's awesome that your parents, you know, made sure of that, or at least were cautious of it.

• 43:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 43:36Speaker 02

  I think the only recruitment letter Travis got in seventh grade was to Sandy Nation. Sandy Nation was just trying to get him over to the high school.

• 43:42Travis Kelce?

  To play, to play, to play hockey.

• 43:45Speaker 02

  Is that what it was for?

• 43:47Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, they, nobody, that's the only sport anybody want to be in seventh grade, seventh, eighth grade. It was that, that and lacrosse.

• 43:54Speaker 04

  We need the hockey highlight tape.

• 43:56Speaker 02

  We're going to get back out there. We, we got to get out there with the Watts. That's the goal. We got to get out there with TJ and JJ and all those dudes. All right. Let me ask you this. We're going to try the segment. We've never done it. It's probably going to be very short-lived.

• 44:08Speaker 02

  It's called Name A Person. We're going to go around the horn and each name an athlete from Iowa until we can't anymore.

• 44:15Speaker 04

  Oh gosh.

• 44:16Speaker 02

  I feel like you're probably not going to struggle. Can you name current players?

• 44:19Travis Kelce?

  No, no, there's had to be an athlete.

• 44:21Speaker 02

  Be former players.

• 44:22Travis Kelce?

  Can they be current? No, they can be former. They have to be former.

• 44:25Speaker 02

  Have to be former, you know, current.

• 44:26Travis Kelce?

  No, they can be, they can be current.

• 44:29Speaker 04

  I'm going to try to do like NFL current players. See if I can do, okay.

• 44:32Speaker 02

  You might beat us in that too. Travis has like the, actually we both really have the positions. So let's see how it happens.

• 44:39Travis Kelce?

  All right.

• 44:40Speaker 02

  Who's starting?

• 44:41Travis Kelce?

  I'll start. George Kittle.

• 44:42Speaker 04

  I knew that was going to be the first person he was going to say.

• 44:44Speaker 02

  I'm going to say, uh, Sam Laporta, just to take Travis's answers away from him before.

• 44:48Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 44:50Speaker 04

  I'm gonna go Tyler Linderbaum on the raid.

• 44:52Travis Kelce?

  No, nice, nice. I'm gonna go Claire Kittle.

• 44:57Speaker 02

  Tristan Wirfs.

• 44:59Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 44:59Speaker 02

  Solid answer.

• 45:01Speaker 04

  The Eagles actually rookie Cooper Dejean.

• 45:05Travis Kelce?

  Nice, Nijay, what about a little TJ Hakasan?

• 45:10Speaker 04

  Ah, that's right. I always heard about him. What? He's on the Vikings, right?

• 45:13Travis Kelce?

  Yes, yes. He's finally back healthy doing his thing.

• 45:16Speaker 04

  That's awesome.

• 45:17Speaker 02

  I'm gonna get a throwback here. I'm gonna get a throwback. Throwback, Robert Gallery.

• 45:21Speaker 04

  His wife actually played basketball at Iowa, too.

• 45:24Travis Kelce?

  Whoa, look at that.

• 45:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, they actually came to quite a few of our games last couple of years. Great people, cool people. Oh, gosh. Okay, let's see. Hmm. Hmm. This is tough.

• 45:37Travis Kelce?

  We stumped her. We stumped her.

• 45:38Speaker 04

  I'm thinking about NFL players.

• 45:42Speaker 04

  I'm gonna go Gino Stone. I think he, I think he's on the Bengals now. I'm pretty sure he had a pick six this past week.

• 45:47Travis Kelce?

  Oh, all right, all right. I'll take it. I'll take it. All right. We respect Gino. I'm gonna go a little Chiefs. Tight end. When I first got to Kansas City, Tony Mowiaki. My dog, my Chi-town brother. Shout out to Timo, man.

• 46:04Speaker 02

  I'm gonna go, um, another former teammate, Julian Vanderville, E. Julian Vanderville.

• 46:12Speaker 04

  Did anybody say Dallas Clark?

• 46:14Travis Kelce?

  No, the legend.

• 46:16Speaker 02

  I was holding on to that one.

• 46:17Travis Kelce?

  No gloves, no gloves.

• 46:18Speaker 04

  The man.

• 46:19Travis Kelce?

  I'll stay in the tight end world over there. Noah Fant.

• 46:22Speaker 04

  That's right. Seahawks, I think.

• 46:25Travis Kelce?

  Yes, yep. Eight seven over there in Seattle.

• 46:28Speaker 02

  All right, all right. I'm going, I'm gonna go Marshall Yanda.

• 46:33Travis Kelce?

  This dude.

• 46:36Speaker 02

  I'm pulling up the, the old schools.

• 46:39Speaker 04

  I'm gonna go Riley Moss on the Broncos. I'm, I'm going with the younger players. Or in school with me.

• 46:46Travis Kelce?

  Well, I'll show my age and Jason's as well because he was the same recruiting class. He was also a Kansas City Chief. When I got to Kansas City, Ricky Stansy, quarterback Iowa.

• 46:56Speaker 02

  Oh, man, this might be where I, um.

• 46:59Travis Kelce?

  This is where it ends.

• 47:00Speaker 02

  This might be, I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure Matt Tobin, I'm pretty sure Matt Tobin played for Iowa.

• 47:06Travis Kelce?

  Sure.

• 47:07Speaker 02

  I'm next to positive.

• 47:09Travis Kelce?

  Then you lost. If you're pretty sure you lost.

• 47:11Speaker 02

  All right, we'll end it there. I think we all did very respectfully.

• 47:14Speaker 04

  We did great. I'm impressed.

• 47:16Travis Kelce?

  That was fun. That was fun. Iowa, who?

• 47:18Speaker 02

  Toad with Iowa. I knew it, Toad. All right, there we go.

• 47:22Travis Kelce?

  That was a fun one.

• 47:23Speaker 02

  All right.

• 47:24Travis Kelce?

  What was your, what was one of your most favorite memories from playing at Iowa, though?

• 47:28Speaker 04

  Ooh, that's tough. There's a lot.

• 47:31Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, maybe one that, that everyone doesn't know about.

• 47:34Speaker 04

  So every four years in, in college basketball, you get to take a foreign trip and you like go and play some teams overseas, like in the summer before your season.

• 47:42Travis Kelce?

  What? Oh, this sounds like a blast.

• 47:44Speaker 02

  That's great.

• 47:45Speaker 04

  So we went to Italy and Croatia, like two great spots.

• 47:49Speaker 02

  Would you like more? Which one? Which one do you like more?

• 47:50Speaker 04

  Honestly, Croatia.

• 47:52Speaker 02

  I've heard that. I've heard Croatia is awesome. So much people.

• 47:56Speaker 04

  Great. But I went to Split and Dubrovnik. It's awesome. And I tell people, I'm like, if you, if you're gonna go one place, like overseas, like that has to be the spot. It's clean, the water's beautiful, things to do.

• 48:08Travis Kelce?

  Oh, that's cool as hell.

• 48:09Speaker 04

  Food's great.

• 48:10Travis Kelce?

  Nice.

• 48:11Speaker 04

  The basketball like wasn't that serious. We beat everybody but like 80. But it was just like so much fun. Like we had, like we had so many fun nights together and.

• 48:19Travis Kelce?

  You guys were like the dream team over there.

• 48:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, like people don't get to hear about like those type of memories with your friends, like your college friends and.

• 48:25Travis Kelce?

  Oh my gosh. I can only imagine going overseas with.

• 48:28Speaker 02

  Croatians? The, we found out, we just recently found out we were Croatian. We didn't even know.

• 48:34Travis Kelce?

  That's why I got so excited when you said Croatia.

• 48:40Speaker 04

  That's me. That's funny.

• 48:43Speaker 02

  We talked about N I L earlier. How much did that change when that became a thing your senior year? Because you were unique where when you first got to college, it wasn't a thing and all of a sudden it became a thing.

• 48:52Speaker 04

  It became a thing after my freshman year. And it was kind of weird because like everybody was like, okay, so like what is it? And like.

• 48:59Travis Kelce?

  Trying to maneuver.

• 49:00Speaker 04

  You know, the NCAA, like they don't have many rules on much anymore. So like.

• 49:03Speaker 02

  Right.

• 49:04Speaker 04

  There weren't many rules and it was more so like, okay, like what can we do? What can we don't, can we not do? And like, we're also the first. So like you're trying to figure it out as you go. My family helped me a lot. But as you get going, you know, you just figure things out and it's fun. And like, and obviously it's been. Should have been a thing for a really long time. Like the NIL part of it, like the true like endorsements. Like you're doing a commercial for.

• 49:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:27Speaker 04

  You know, the local coffee shop or like whatever it is like, it's something so easy and so simple. And I think, you know, like a normal student can do that, but like, why couldn't an athlete like, it's just like such a simple thing that should have been a thing for a long time. But also it was like challenging to navigate and it still is like seeing these college students that they don't have the right resources around them.

• 49:46Speaker 02

  And. Right.

• 49:47Speaker 04

  It's it's things like it's hard and um, and I think that's kind of like something that needs to kind of become, I don't know, more prevalent. And I know universities are trying to start like having in-house like NIL people or whatever it is, or in-house lawyers or whatever it is to kind of try to manage that. So they're doing the best they can too, but obviously there's not many guidelines or rules, so it makes it hard as well. But it obviously changed a lot and it's made it fun. And I think it's also helped women's sports grow too. I think you've seen.

• 50:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a great point. Women's sports has blown up with the NIL stuff. That's such a good.

• 50:22Travis Kelce?

  Everyone's becoming more familiar. Yeah.

• 50:24Speaker 04

  Absolutely. So it's been, it's been great for everybody, honestly.

• 50:27Travis Kelce?

  Nice. Have you ever heard of anybody, you're a little, you're a little bit closer to the NIL world. Have you heard of anybody um, paying their taxes?

• 50:38Travis Kelce?

  Because that's what in my mind, I'm like, I definitely wasn't fucking ready to pay taxes when I was in college. Like I wasn't thinking about that shit.

• 50:46Speaker 04

  I know. That's what I always think about. And lucky enough, I had like obviously great parents and people that helped me with that. But like, these people are like getting this money and like little do they know, like you're not, you're gonna see like maybe half of that.

• 50:58Travis Kelce?

  Especially, yeah.

• 51:00Speaker 04

  And so I don't know, and like they're spending and like you just worry. But if you guys got to pick any NIL deal in college, what are you going with?

• 51:09Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 51:10Travis Kelce?

  Adriatico's Pizza. I should sell that shit in a heartbeat. I used to go there every fucking day. If you're ever around University of Cincinnati, go on up there to Clifton and then have some Adriatico's Pizza. Get you a Bearcat Pizza. It's one of the best.

• 51:23Speaker 04

  All right. I'm gonna do it. I like it.

• 51:27Speaker 02

  If I'm going for business wise, you want to get in the, the P and G family.

• 51:31Travis Kelce?

  Procter and gamble. That's a marketing major right there. The correct answer is go to the biggest brand in the city.

• 51:39Speaker 02

  The biggest like oversight of all these brands.

• 51:42Speaker 04

  Like a little.

• 51:44Speaker 02

  I would go like selfishly, the one that I would do would be Skyline because it's just like, it's such a representation for Cincinnati.

• 51:53Speaker 02

  Well, do yourself a favor. Don't go. You'll absolutely hate it.

• 51:55Travis Kelce?

  Don't do it.

• 51:55Speaker 02

  It's very acquired. You have to be, you have to drink it at least three, you have to eat it at least three or four times when you're drunk. Really truly appreciate it.

• 52:05Travis Kelce?

  I've actually, I've seen Jason eat more Penn Station at the University of Cincinnati than I did Skyline. So.

• 52:09Speaker 04

  We have Penn Station here.

• 52:11Speaker 02

  Penn Station is good.

• 52:12Speaker 04

  Penn Station is good.

• 52:13Travis Kelce?

  One of the best cheese steaks in the land.

• 52:15Speaker 04

  Great cheesesteak. What do you think about that, Jason, as a Philly guy?

• 52:20Speaker 02

  This, you're going to put me on blast because I love Penn Station cheese steaks. And Kai, this is a heated debate between Kylie and I.

• 52:27Travis Kelce?

  You're about to divide a family, Caitlin.

• 52:29Speaker 02

  Kylie, I took her to Penn Station to have a cheesesteak. I'm like, you're going to love this cheesesteak. It is so good. And she was like, this is a cheese and steak sandwich. This is not a cheesesteak. I'm like, what the hell? You could just like switch it. It's the same ingredients. She could not stand it. It was like flabbergasted that this thing would even be called a cheesesteak. So I do love Penn Station cheese steaks, but I, you know, I'm Philadelphia.

• 52:51Travis Kelce?

  Kai likes the nacho cheese on the cheesesteak though. So that's a little.

• 52:54Speaker 04

  See, I don't like the nacho cheese.

• 52:56Speaker 02

  She does American stuff.

• 53:00Speaker 02

  I'm not going to let you do this to Kylie. The one thing that I think everybody's a little bit with is the transfer portal, right? Like there's a kid, Penn State, like more recently, uh, what is it? They're starting quarterback just announced he's transferring right before the playoffs.

• 53:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, I saw that. Those things are backup, but like.

• 53:15Speaker 02

  Oh, was it? Okay. Sorry.

• 53:16Speaker 04

  But he played in a few games, even like quite a few games because I think Drew Aller or whatever his name is got hurt or something.

• 53:22Speaker 02

  That's what it was.

• 53:23Speaker 04

  But yeah, the transfer portal was crazy, especially in football. Like I think that's where it's gotten the craziest because that's obviously where all the money's at.

• 53:29Travis Kelce?

  Everybody's a free agent every year. This is.

• 53:32Speaker 02

  Every year. It's like twice a year, right?

• 53:34Speaker 04

  Adam Schefter is like reporting like, yes, they've negotiated a new deal for him to stay at the university. I'm like, yeah, like where else is he going to go?

• 53:43Speaker 04

  It's like crazy and it's kind of sad like like it just you lost that little bit of like, I don't know amateurism of college sports and I don't know that's why it's so fun but also like it's the world we're living in.

• 53:54Travis Kelce?

  Right below being a professional like that like that.

• 53:57Speaker 04

  I know. It's like a minor league football basically now.

• 54:00Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, that's exactly what it is.

• 54:03Speaker 04

  I don't know. What do you guys think about the transfer portal? Do you think there should be like different rules?

• 54:07Travis Kelce?

  I'm too old school. I didn't get the opportunity to transfer. So.

• 54:10Speaker 02

  I think that I don't think that people should be leaving before the playoffs. I think that they should figure that out.

• 54:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 54:15Speaker 02

  I I kind of think that there should be a commitment level from the player to the university that there isn't right now. And I don't know if that means signing like term contracts, like maybe it's like a two, three year contract that you're like agreeing to stick with a team or a university as long as there's not like a coaching change.

• 54:32Travis Kelce?

  That's what I thought it was. I thought it was the the original reason why they came up with the transfer portal was one because of COVID, but two because coaches just were up and leaving and players were being forced to just be there with whoever came in.

• 54:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 54:48Travis Kelce?

  Knowing that they the new coaching staff wasn't the ones that really wanted them or recruited them. So they were kind of put on the back burner. I I think if a coach leaves, then a player or whoever on the team gets to be able to enter the transfer portal, but it's.

• 55:01Speaker 04

  For sure.

• 55:01Travis Kelce?

  It should it should go back to the old rules. If you ask a old timer like me to where if you transfer, you have to sit out a year.

• 55:08Speaker 04

  I know. I agree.

• 55:09Travis Kelce?

  I don't know.

• 55:10Speaker 04

  Or I think like you get one.

• 55:11Travis Kelce?

  Every situation is different, but.

• 55:13Speaker 04

  For sure. Or you get a free pass if your coach leaves or whatever.

• 55:16Speaker 02

  That makes that makes a ton of sense. Having one free. Yeah.

• 55:20Speaker 04

  But now we got people on like their fourth school and their seventh year. It's just getting aggri- it's getting egregious.

• 55:27Travis Kelce?

  Insane. I was I was being a kid and when NCAA football, the video game came out. I was like, I just have to. I have to buy the have to play this. I have to act like I went to every university. And then I was like, oh, I don't have to just go and create a new like player. I can just transfer. So I played at four different schools, one of the Heisman at each school. And I'm just like, man, could you imagine a player doing this? Because NIL, if he wins the Heisman. Like early on enough like he's gonna get or they're gonna get enough money to stay to stay at their like

• 56:00Speaker 02

  College?

• 56:00Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, to stay in college for as long as they want, or as long as their eligibility to let them.

• 56:05Speaker 04

  And what do you have to say in college for three years in college football? What do you guys think about that? You think that's good or you think?

• 56:10Travis Kelce?

  That should remain.

• 56:12Speaker 04

  Remain, yeah.

• 56:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, I I'm kind of in favor of that.

• 56:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 56:16Speaker 02

  I don't I don't know. I don't like restricting kids. Like if they're good enough, go. But there's like a physicality that I feel like is still like very different.

• 56:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 56:23Travis Kelce?

  But it it'll get to the point where it's not even the physicality. It'll just be guys will leave knowing that they have the potential to become that. You know what I mean? So guys will just like get drafted based off of potential even more.

• 56:37Speaker 04

  Right.

• 56:38Travis Kelce?

  All right now.

• 56:41Speaker 03

  With a Spark Cash Plus card from Capital One, you earn unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase. And you get big purchasing power. So your business can spend more and earn more.

• 56:53Travis Kelce?

  We end all of our conversations with a segment we call, We Gotta Ask, But You Don't Have To Answer, Caitlin. So it's as simple as that. All righty, Caitlin, you uh, you're up and you don't have to answer these. But you could tell us to just fuck off. Did you see the new NBA All-Star format?

• 57:11Speaker 04

  I did.

• 57:12Travis Kelce?

  And how do you feel about this?

• 57:14Speaker 04

  Oh, see, that's tough.

• 57:17Travis Kelce?

  Four teams of eight with one team being the rising stars.

• 57:22Speaker 04

  So I saw Kevin Durant said this today, or maybe yesterday, or whenever it was. But they should go back to the East versus West. And that's when I loved it. I think it should be East versus West. Like, that's true All-Stars. Like,

• 57:33Travis Kelce?

  No doubt.

• 57:34Speaker 04

  East versus West, battle it out.

• 57:35Speaker 02

  That's what it was about.

• 57:36Speaker 04

  Yeah. So I think that's what it should be, but obviously not the commissioner. I'm on board for East versus West All-Stars. I think that's the whole point of it. That's why you're an All-Star. It's the best from the East versus the best in the West, play each other, see which which side's better.

• 57:52Speaker 02

  I'm not gonna lie, I'm not a fan of any of these in-season tournaments that the NBA is doing.

• 57:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was actually talking about this today.

• 57:59Travis Kelce?

  How are you not? What is there to not be a fan of?

• 58:03Speaker 02

  All the all the funky floors and then there's tournaments and they don't mean crap.

• 58:07Speaker 04

  Funky floors?

• 58:08Speaker 02

  Can we just play basketball?

• 58:10Speaker 04

  I know.

• 58:12Speaker 04

  I'm getting like a migraine looking at the neon green.

• 58:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:20Speaker 04

  But no, I feel like it was a hit the first year, the NBA cup, the whatever it was. And it kind of like toned down a little bit this year, but it's interesting. They're trying to spice it up a little bit.

• 58:31Speaker 02

  I don't know what team is what team. The jerseys aren't the same. The colors aren't the same.

• 58:35Travis Kelce?

  Jason is such a, he's such an old stubborn dude. This is hilarious.

• 58:39Speaker 02

  Alrighty.

• 58:40Speaker 04

  That's funny.

• 58:41Speaker 02

  Obviously, Caitlin, you don't need to help with the ratings, but it's been in the news a lot recently that the NBA ratings are down. Should we brainstorm a few ideas besides changing the NBA courts to bring back ratings into the NBA? What do you think?

• 58:58Speaker 04

  That's a great.

• 58:59Speaker 02

  You're the marketing major. Come on.

• 59:00Speaker 04

  I've been asking a lot of people about this and why they think they're down, but also like it's interesting because I'm pretty sure opening day was the NBA's best opening day in a while. So it's interesting and obviously I think, I think.

• 59:12Travis Kelce?

  The Cavs are back, baby. The Cavs are fucking rolling right now. You know what I'm saying? It just makes the league better when Cleveland's thriving.

• 59:18Speaker 04

  They're really, really good.

• 59:19Travis Kelce?

  Fucking pulled that out of my ass. They are fun to watch right now.

• 59:23Speaker 02

  So, well, let's ask this. What do, what, what are your, what are your suspicions potentially as to why the NBA ratings would be down?

• 59:30Speaker 04

  Honestly, like I feel like the average, just like basketball fan doesn't understand how good NBA players are, and they think it looks like they're not trying. I promise you they're trying. They're just like so good. Like that's why it looks like they're not trying. And obviously the physicality of the league has changed a lot. And I wasn't around when it was like much more physical and maybe people want more like beef and physicality and people think it's gotten soft, but I think that's also because the skill has just changed. And like, that's what's great about basketball. Like it's always evolving. Like it's going to be different than when MJ played. It's going to be different in 10 years than it is now. So it's hard for me to like put my finger on like why it has gone down. And also it's competing against a lot of football right now. You have to take that into consideration. Like football is just, you know, that's America's

• 1:00:13Speaker 04

  favorite thing. I think people should like, I mean, I love three point shooting. I love seeing guys just like launch threes, but not everybody loves that. So I don't know.

• 1:00:22Travis Kelce?

  What do you think about a four point line?

• 1:00:23Speaker 04

  I love that. Let's do it.

• 1:00:25Speaker 02

  That's actually genius. That is genius.

• 1:00:28Speaker 04

  Four point line.

• 1:00:29Speaker 02

  How does the criminal justice major come up with the best marketing plan right here?

• 1:00:33Travis Kelce?

  Sometimes you just gotta open your eyes, Jason. Look at the sheet of paper in front of you.

• 1:00:36Speaker 04

  Or we can get like just two spots.

• 1:00:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:39Travis Kelce?

  I what about what about you're saying that that everybody's questioning how physical the game is. What do you think a hockey style fight one once a game? Just everybody picks a fighter.

• 1:00:50Speaker 02

  Who doesn't like a boxing gloves?

• 1:00:51Speaker 04

  Two minutes penalty boxing, you can come back in, you don't get ejected.

• 1:00:55Speaker 02

  That's what I'm saying. He's got some reach on it.

• 1:00:58Travis Kelce?

  Bring that physicality back.

• 1:00:59Speaker 04

  Guy wants that.

• 1:01:01Speaker 02

  What about like an NBA jam rule where like if you want, if you start making like a third bucket, it's worth more.

• 1:01:07Speaker 04

  It's like heating up, like you're on fire.

• 1:01:09Speaker 02

  If you're on fire, it's worth more. So like, I don't know.

• 1:01:12Speaker 04

  That would be cool. That would be cool.

• 1:01:14Travis Kelce?

  Just made me want to play NBA jam. Have you ever played NBA jam, Kaylin?

• 1:01:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, I I used to have this like, it was like the whole arcade, like the arcade NBA.

• 1:01:22Speaker 02

  So sick. I'm jealous.

• 1:01:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, I haven't played in a while, but yeah.

• 1:01:28Speaker 02

  Is it potentially because we're playing too many games?

• 1:01:31Speaker 04

  I think that's for sure. Probably something like 82 games on like somebody's body like.

• 1:01:37Speaker 02

  So many.

• 1:01:38Speaker 04

  It's insane. Like they like, they're not practicing a lot. Like it's just hard.

• 1:01:42Speaker 02

  If it's to the point that guys are that your star players are having to take time off, why don't we just play less games?

• 1:01:47Speaker 04

  I know.

• 1:01:48Speaker 02

  So the star players don't have to take time off because I, I don't know. I just, I feel like the NBA and Major League Baseball grew up in times where ticket sales were what like was your main source of revenue. And now it's all driven by ad dollars from TV contracts.

• 1:02:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:02:04Speaker 02

  So to increase TV revenue, it's like just play less games in more impactful times. I don't know.

• 1:02:10Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, there's definitely ways to solve that. I mean, like 82 games and we don't even, we play half of that and that's going to go up as we add more teams to our league.

• 1:02:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:18Speaker 04

  But like, I can't imagine.

• 1:02:20Travis Kelce?

  Heard Kansas City's in the shopping around for a team.

• 1:02:24Speaker 04

  Patrick trying to bring one. I know. And they got, they got a good basketball arena there. What is it? The Sprint Center or T-Mobile or whatever?

• 1:02:30Travis Kelce?

  Hold the, you're right. It, it, golly, you just took me back. It used to be Sprint, Sprint sold to T-Mobile. It's announced to T-Mobile.

• 1:02:37Speaker 04

  I knew it was one of them.

• 1:02:38Travis Kelce?

  Big 12 tourneys there every year.

• 1:02:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's a great spot. And then Power and Light District down there. Like it's, it would be. For great women's basketball could could be great there. Um, so I support it, but yeah, I don't know. I think 82 games is a lot on somebody's body and like mentally like that's hard. And what is it for football? I mean, you're playing what 15 or?

• 1:02:59Speaker 02

  You're playing 17 regular season.

• 1:03:01Travis Kelce?

  17 and they're trying to add 18.

• 1:03:03Speaker 02

  I think I think the NBA, I think the NFL should be playing less regular season games, but I'm losing that.

• 1:03:07Speaker 04

  And what are you playing Travis? You're playing like three in the next three in like 11 days or something like that?

• 1:03:13Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. So it already started. Uh, I'm going to be playing two in the next, uh, what is it? Eight ga- eight days?

• 1:03:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:22Speaker 04

  Like, how do you even prepare for that? Like, that's crazy.

• 1:03:25Travis Kelce?

  You just put your shoes and pads on just like the other team.

• 1:03:29Speaker 02

  We're in this together.

• 1:03:30Travis Kelce?

  And you put your face in the fan. You just know it's coming.

• 1:03:34Speaker 02

  We're all in this shit now.

• 1:03:36Travis Kelce?

  To be honest, we're ending that skit on or like the three games in 11 days. We're ending it on Christmas and it's like, who can't get excited to play on fucking Christmas?

• 1:03:46Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 1:03:47Travis Kelce?

  We didn't last year and you saw that firsthand, but this year I think we're ready.

• 1:03:50Speaker 02

  We're gonna rebound on Christmas.

• 1:03:52Speaker 04

  On Netflix or whatever. Yeah.

• 1:03:54Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:03:55Speaker 02

  You recently, uh, played in a pro-am with Annika Sorenstam.

• 1:03:58Speaker 04

  I did.

• 1:03:59Speaker 02

  You hit a person on a tee box. I don't know how you do that.

• 1:04:01Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:04:03Speaker 02

  Hit a person on a tee box.

• 1:04:04Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, we, I know I can relate. Jason, I don't know if you've played in enough pro amps yet to hit anybody, but.

• 1:04:11Speaker 04

  The video that was going viral where I like completely topped it. So it's crazy. Like we're playing like these long par threes that are like 200 yards. I'm like, I'm not good enough to hit a par three, like 200 yards. Like, so I whip out my hybrid and like tee up my hybrid club. Just top it like straight out of fancy left.

• 1:04:27Speaker 02

  Been there.

• 1:04:27Speaker 04

  But I think they dodged it.

• 1:04:29Travis Kelce?

  Down the third baseline.

• 1:04:30Speaker 04

  But I nailed somebody on a different par three, like some woman, like right in the shoulder, like.

• 1:04:35Speaker 02

  Shoulder?

• 1:04:35Speaker 04

  I saw, I saw a TikTok like the next day, just like black welt on her arm.

• 1:04:40Speaker 02

  Well, that's just, you hit her good. She's got a black welt. Are you more competitive in golf or, uh, basketball?

• 1:04:46Speaker 04

  That's hard. I think like golf makes me more mad because I'm not as good at it. Like I'm just like the average hack and like you want to be good. Like you're competitive, just like basketball or football. Like it's like, why am I not good at this? So, and it's like meant, it's like, it's an individual sport and we're used to team sports. So I think that's what pisses me off too. It's like, it's all on me and I know it's all my fault. So.

• 1:05:06Travis Kelce?

  I share your pain.

• 1:05:09Travis Kelce?

  Are you more nervous on the free throw line or at the first tee?

• 1:05:13Speaker 04

  First tee, not even close.

• 1:05:17Speaker 04

  Shaking, I like can't put my ball on the tee. Can't get it to stay on the tee, you're shaking so bad. So good in the ground. I mean, like your average at golf, at least you're confident in the actual sport you play, you know?

• 1:05:30Travis Kelce?

  Touche. According to your teammates, you are quite the karaoke person. What is your karaoke song of choice? Or what's your go to?

• 1:05:41Speaker 04

  Oh, that's tough. It switches up.

• 1:05:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, depends on what mood you're in.

• 1:05:45Speaker 04

  Does. You know what's, you know what's good? Where is the love by the Black Eyed Peas? That's a good. It's a good karaoke song.

• 1:05:53Travis Kelce?

  She gets it.

• 1:05:54Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:05:55Speaker 04

  Honestly, it changes up. I like a little duet action. So you could go up there with your friends.

• 1:06:00Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:06:01Travis Kelce?

  Nice.

• 1:06:02Speaker 04

  I haven't done karaoke in a while. What's your guys' go to song? If you had to pick?

• 1:06:05Speaker 02

  I have one song and I go to it routinely. Total Eclipse of the Heart by the Dan Band. I will sing that at any time.

• 1:06:14Travis Kelce?

  I'm anything eighties rock and roll, eighty seventies, eighties rock and roll, throw it on. Springsteen, you name it, any of it. I'm like ACDC. I can only do one though. If I'm gonna do ACDC, I can only do one.

• 1:06:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, that takes a lot out of you.

• 1:06:32Travis Kelce?

  Cause I can only stay, I can only stay like that for so long. And then my voice is just gone, so.

• 1:06:39Speaker 02

  I will go Colt forty five Afro Man.

• 1:06:44Speaker 02

  Like the crowd is the right.

• 1:06:45Travis Kelce?

  Go forty five.

• 1:06:49Speaker 02

  What's the goat basketball shoe?

• 1:06:50Speaker 04

  Oh, so I play in only Kobe's. I like Kobe's are my, I'm a big Kobe fan.

• 1:06:56Travis Kelce?

  What numbers?

• 1:06:56Speaker 04

  The five and the six. I like the six probably better, but five and six, they're low top, so.

• 1:07:02Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, that's where I was like, I can do the ones. That's about.

• 1:07:05Speaker 04

  But they look cool.

• 1:07:06Travis Kelce?

  Hooping, yeah.

• 1:07:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, they look cool. And trust me, I sprained my ankles a thousand, a thousand times. There's no stopping it anymore, so.

• 1:07:12Travis Kelce?

  Forget which number it is, but he came out with the ones, I think after he popped his Achilles with the, the, I actually like went up. Like halfway up the calf.

• 1:07:20Speaker 04

  Yep. And they're making those again. Yeah.

• 1:07:22Travis Kelce?

  Are they really?

• 1:07:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, I got a pair in like white and maybe red. So that should be that. That could be the shoe you hoop in.

• 1:07:30Travis Kelce?

  There it is.

• 1:07:30Speaker 04

  Goes all the way up his leg. Make sure.

• 1:07:32Travis Kelce?

  I'm not rolling my fucking ankle. I know that for sure. Just wearing a winter boot.

• 1:07:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, literally.

• 1:07:39Travis Kelce?

  If you weren't playing basketball, what would Katelyn Clark be doing? Said you were a marketing major. Would you have gone more into that world or you think you would have jumped into something else?

• 1:07:49Speaker 04

  Oh, man, that's tough. I think if my basketball career would have ended, I still would have loved sports just because it was like so such a huge part of my childhood and like what I did.

• 1:07:58Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:58Speaker 04

  So I don't know, maybe like try to work in like a front office of a sports organization or something like that. I think that would be cool. Not like the coaching side of it, but like the operations side and getting to do like free agency stuff. And I think that would be really cool.

• 1:08:11Speaker 02

  Apparently you have talked about opening a rib restaurant. Is this true?

• 1:08:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:08:17Speaker 04

  And this was like such a random thing when I was growing up. I like told my mom like, yeah, there was like this plot of land like by where we would like where we lived and

• 1:08:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:26Speaker 04

  I like had this weird obsession with like ribs. It was like what I asked my mom to make me for my birthday.

• 1:08:32Speaker 02

  Let me tell you, there ain't nothing weird about that.

• 1:08:36Speaker 04

  So I was like, yeah, I'm gonna open the rib crib, like have this barbecue joint, like, I don't know. We'll see. I've kind of phased out of like, I love ribs still, but I don't, I've never made ribs for myself, but I'll just hire a chef. Maybe he can run the restaurant.

• 1:08:51Speaker 02

  You can just be the face behind. What's, are you baby, you baby back or spare ribs?

• 1:08:56Speaker 04

  Uh, baby back.

• 1:08:57Speaker 02

  Baby back. All right. All right.

• 1:08:59Travis Kelce?

  You're my baby, baby, baby.

• 1:09:00Speaker 02

  Are you, uh, Kansas City style barbecue sauce or you going?

• 1:09:03Speaker 04

  I'm Kansas City. Yeah.

• 1:09:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. All right. That makes sense. That adds up.

• 1:09:07Speaker 04

  Has to be.

• 1:09:08Speaker 02

  What sides are we having? What sides are we?

• 1:09:11Travis Kelce?

  Talk about it.

• 1:09:14Travis Kelce?

  Lineman at heart. Have you?

• 1:09:16Speaker 02

  Full disclosure, I haven't had dinner yet.

• 1:09:20Speaker 04

  I gotta go like some mac and cheese.

• 1:09:23Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:09:23Speaker 04

  What else are we going with?

• 1:09:25Speaker 02

  Cornbread, some cheesy corn.

• 1:09:27Speaker 04

  Corn, has to have cornbread.

• 1:09:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:29Speaker 04

  Maybe some like green beans with bacon or like. I don't even know.

• 1:09:34Speaker 02

  Bake beans.

• 1:09:35Speaker 04

  Bake beans, baked beans are great.

• 1:09:37Travis Kelce?

  Jason's just answering his own question.

• 1:09:39Speaker 04

  Baked beans are great. I love baked beans. I haven't had barbecue in forever. You're gonna make me crave it.

• 1:09:44Speaker 02

  My mouth is legitimately watering, you know.

• 1:09:46Travis Kelce?

  Come on down to Arrowhead, we'll get you some barbecue.

• 1:09:48Speaker 02

  Can I get the banana pudding for dessert? Ooh.

• 1:09:50Travis Kelce?

  All right, piece of advice for the next Katelyn Clark watching.

• 1:09:54Speaker 04

  That's tough. I think just like enjoy every single moment because it goes so fast and like life changes so fast and you know, you only get to do a lot of things once. So have fun, enjoy it. Remember why you do it. Cause like you love it. You're passionate about it. You know, don't take it too serious. So I would say that. That's try to, that's how I've tried to live. And obviously some moments are better than others. As you guys know, you get competitive and caught up, but you know, just enjoy it. Have fun and you know, keep loving it.

• 1:10:23Speaker 02

  I think that is a very wise answer.

• 1:10:26Travis Kelce?

  Yes.

• 1:10:26Speaker 02

  Especially for someone going into their second year.

• 1:10:31Travis Kelce?

  So much shit serious when I first got in the league. I would just say I have to do this. I have to this and this. And now I'm just like telling everybody like, you know, it's not that serious.

• 1:10:43Speaker 04

  That's funny.

• 1:10:44Speaker 02

  Before we wrap, do you have any questions for us?

• 1:10:46Travis Kelce?

  You had, you had any?

• 1:10:48Speaker 02

  Feel free to ask none.

• 1:10:50Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:51Speaker 04

  I don't have it. It was fun. You guys were great. So thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

• 1:10:56Travis Kelce?

  Katelyn Clark.

• 1:10:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, baby.

• 1:11:00Speaker 04

  Thanks, Chelsea bros. You guys were awesome.

• 1:11:03Travis Kelce?

  You're absolutely amazing. Can't wait to see you and the Fever go at it again next season. When are you guys starting up for a training camp?

• 1:11:10Speaker 04

  April.

• 1:11:11Travis Kelce?

  April. Oh, nice. So you got some time.

• 1:11:13Speaker 04

  I got some time. So hopefully I can make it to a Chiefs game here soon. Maybe a playoff game or something. So.

• 1:11:19Travis Kelce?

  I'll tell you what, we punched our ticket. So we're definitely, we're gonna at least have, I would assume we at least got one at Arrowhead, but you know, you're, you're invited to them all. So.

• 1:11:28Speaker 04

  All right. Appreciate you guys. Thank you so much.

• 1:11:30Speaker 02

  Thank you so much for coming on, Katelyn. All right, and that wraps up another episode of New Heights. Thank you so much to our guest, Kaitlyn Clark. We will be back next week for a brand new episode. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Reminder, you can listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

• 1:11:57Travis Kelce?

  Once again, New Heights, a Wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment, and a big thanks to our presenting sponsor, Audible. Start listening today when you sign up for a free 30 day trial at audible.com/newheights. Follow the show on all social media, at New Heights Show with one S, as usual, and thanks to our production crew and 92%ers. You guys are our favorites for tuning in and also making us look better than we are. Love you guys. See you guys next week.

• 1:12:26Speaker 02

  That's right. Happy New Year.