Travis Kelce Explains How College Marijuana Suspension Helped Lead to Position Change

The All-Pro tight end was issued a year-long suspension in college, which helped put him onto a Hall of Fame career path.

By now, Travis Kelce’s college origin story is well known. A two-star recruit coming out of high school, he enrolled at Cincinnati and played sparingly his freshman year before missing all of his sophomore season while serving a one-year suspension for failing a marijuana test. Previously splitting time as a little-used tight end and wildcat quarterback, Kelce returned and developed into a pro prospect at tight end, eventually getting drafted by the Chiefs in the third round in 2013.

The rest, as they say, is history. But were it not for Kelce’s emphasis on playing tight end exclusively following his suspension, who knows how his playing career would have ended up. And, as it turns out, it was the one-year suspension that helped spur that decision.

“What [the suspension] did was it really kicked me into the tight end room,” Kelce said during his appearance on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast on Monday. “I was still playing QB then. It was like, ‘Alright, you can come walk on the team, but we don’t need a quarterback. You can just be an athlete on scout team for a year, we’ll figure it out.’”

After making 13 catches as a junior in 2011, Kelce certainly figured it out during his senior season, hauling in 45 grabs for 722 yards and eight touchdowns. He’s since developed into one of the best tight ends in NFL history, with seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons (and counting) and seven All-Pro selections. After all that production, it’s safe to say that Kelce ended up at the right position.