Travis Kelce was on his best behavior during his recent visit to the White House. While celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl win with President Joe Biden on May 31, the NFL player briefly spoke at the podium.
“My fellow Americans. It’s nice to see you all yet again,” Travis, 34, said in reference to the Chiefs’ multiple Super Bowl wins. “I’m not gonna lie, President Biden. They told me if I came up here, I’d get tased. So I’m gonna go back to my spot.”
While everyone laughed off the line, Travis revealed on the Wednesday, June 5, episode of the “New Heights” podcast that he truly was being careful.
“That’s real. The Secret Service that’s all over the White House, they weren’t so happy with me,” he told his brother and cohost Jason Kelce. “They weren’t too happy with me on my second time visiting.”
While visiting in 2023, Travis and his teammate Patrick Mahomes delivered a jersey to President Biden before making a short statement at the podium. The brief remark was a big no-no, Travis later learned.
“When I walked in [this year], we had about four or five Secret Service members come up to me,” Travis recalled. “[They] go, ‘You know that if you go up to that podium, we are authorized to tase you. It is actually ordered for us to tase you.’”
Security was seemingly watching Travis for another reason too. The podcast host admitted he made another mistake during his White House visit in 2023.
“Last time, I was talking about how I had an expired ID. I caught s**t for that,” he said. “I made sure, because of what happened last time and how embarrassed I was for going to the White House with an expired ID, I made sure that I brought my passport with me this time. I was doing things the right way because everyone has to do that at the White House.”
Ultimately, Travis was able to have a positive — and safe — experience at the White House last month. Regardless of who is running the country, the athlete also believes it’s special to attend the Washington D.C. landmark.
“It’s always an honor to go to the White House, man,” he explained. “Any time that I get a chance to get recognized by the President of the United States and get to go with my teammates and a group of men and women that I had success with to the point we get to get acknowledged, man, I’m doing it every single time. No matter who’s up there at the helm, no matter what’s going on in this world, I think it’s just a cool opportunity.”