KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Travis Kelce is 36 years old now and in the final season of his current contract after seeming profoundly conflicted about returning early in the offseason. But Kelce ultimately heeded “the fire in my chest” to return, he said in June, because he “just felt like I’ve got a lot more to prove.”

Along those lines, the Chiefs’ 28-7 victory over the visiting Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football offered a microcosm of Kelce’s career in its twilight.

Including, as it happens, the glow that still keeps finding him even in the autumn of his playing days.

Because about every time you start to wonder how much more Kelce might have to give, he keeps demonstrating plenty yet, proves something more and entrenches himself deeper into Chiefs — and NFL — lore:

Most memorably on Monday that was by way of his most productive regular-season game in nearly a year and the 83rd touchdown of his career to tie Priest Holmes for the franchise record.

For all that’s been rightfully made of the recent returns of Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy to at least make whole a much-anticipated receiving corps with Hollywood Brown, Kelce’s still here to remind you that he’s the target already destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“I constantly see (a) spark out of Trav …,” Rice said. “It’s never really gone.”

The latest entry in the historical ledger emerged despite — or was it because of? — his wince-inducing gaffe early in the game.

But if you were left scoffing at Kelce after he deflected a Patrick Mahomes pass into an interception for the second time this season, most everyone around him reckoned something else.

“He’s never really down-down,” tight end Robert Tonyan said.

The resilience of a next-play mentality, receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster said, is “what he’s great at.”

Or as Mahomes put it: “That stuff happens — just like I threw an interception earlier in the game.”

And, somehow, this stuff keeps happening:

Starting with two catches for 42 yards on the next series, Kelce had six receptions for 99 yards — the most yardages he’s had in a regular-season game since last November.

All underscored by his 10-yard touchdown catch, which fittingly enough came as Mahomes’ third read on the play ... and with some customary mid-play adjustments between the pair that possesses about as tangible a wavelength as you’ll ever see.

“I left it a little inside, too,” Mahomes said, “and he was able to come back and make a big, strong catch.”

Including postseason games, the catch marked Kelce’s 100th career touchdown.

It also was the 57th from Mahomes, the third-most between a quarterback and tight end in NFL history behind only Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski (90) and Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates (89).

Kelce politely declined to be interviewed in the postgame locker room, but on ESPN’s postgame show he framed the touchdown thusly:

“I’m still looking at the next game and looking at the next catch.”

Mahomes, though, put it in more immediate perspective when it comes to one of the longest-tenured Chiefs who is now in his 13th season.

“He’s just like the true Chiefs’ Chief,” Mahomes said. “I mean, he is the guy that’s been here through the whole thing, been here with Coach (Andy) Reid the entire time. … He helped set the culture of what it means to play for Coach Reid and to play in Kansas City. And I was able to come in and then have that guy to rely on.”

In virtually every imaginable situation over the years.

So often spectacularly.

But Kelce struggled in the AFC championship game and Super Bowl, totaling six catches for 58 yards at the end of a season in which he still produced but appeared to have lost some of the burst and wiggle that set him apart.

It initially was unclear whether he’d return. Especially after the jarring way he put it in on his New Heights podcast with his brother, Jason, days after the 40-22 loss to the Eagles.

“As you see yourself or not feel yourself have the success that you once used to have, man, it’s a tough pill to swallow,” he said then. “And then on top of that, to not be there in the biggest moments, knowing your team’s counting on you, man … It’s just a tough reality.”

But the greater reality was that he wasn’t ready to stop.

And he came back downright svelte, perhaps in the best shape he’d been in for years, and ready to prove himself all over again.

He had a bit of a sluggish start, including that other deflection-into-an-interception at the goal line pivotal in the 20-17 loss to the Eagles in Week 2.

And it was all magnified by the way he was acting out, including headbutting teammate Jawaan Taylor and sideline tantrums in frustration.

Where was this going, anyway?

For the most part, though, he’s looked sleek, nimble and revived for weeks.

Beyond the touchdown on Monday, he connected with Mahomes for catches of 38 and 31 yards — the two longest plays of the game by either team.

Paralleling the arc of his late career, it all came after the ball he tipped into a pick.

“The main thing he didn’t do is hang his head on it,” Reid said. “He was mad at himself, but he works through those things. (There’s) nothing like getting another catch.”

Something Kelce’s still going after.

©2025 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.