Travis Kelce says his mom tried to keep him from getting lost as a kid—with a leash

Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, I mean, Travis Kelce, the NFL athlete, had a very down-to-earth childhood. According to previous episodes of his podcast, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, he and his brothers were “challenging children” to say the least.

He revealed in the latest episode of the podcast that his mom used to put him in a harness—complete with a leash—so he wouldn’t run away.

“She eventually got […] sick of us getting lost and she put me in a leash,” Travis said on the podcast. “I was a leash kid.”

Who could blame her really, as her boys were pretty intense from what you can glean from their podcast. Running away was just one of the issues she had with the rambunctious brothers. 

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Both Jason and Travis got kicked out of preschool. Preschool!

Jason was kicked out because of a spork fight, and Travis was kicked out because he threw a chair at his teacher—all because she wanted him to share the game of checkers he was playing.

“I was winning because I don’t […] lose at checkers,” Travis said on the podcast. 

He added that the winner got to keep playing the game, so he just wanted to keep going.

“I kept winning and the teacher told me, you know ‘Travis, you have to share,’ and I was like, ‘That’s not how it rolls,’” he said.

Then the chair was thrown and the rest was history.

While leashes have been a controversial aspect of parenting in recent years, it seemed like it did the trick for the Kelce brothers’ mom. And as we all know, moms have to do what they need to do.

The question now is, does it work for adults?

Hopefully Taylor won’t have to take a page out of Travis’ mom’s book and use a leash to keep him from wandering off, but at least she knows it works and can be a potential option.

A version of this story was originally published on Oct. 20, 2023. It has been updated.