Travis Kelce 1,000-yard seasons: How 'humble' decision to skip Week 18 ended NFL record streak

Week 18 was an interesting one for the Chiefs. Multiple Chiefs' starters did not see action by choice of their own, including star tight end Travis Kelce. 

Because of that, it was unsurprising that pop star Taylor Swift, who is currently dating Kelce, was not in attendance, either.

Here's everything to know about why Kelce did not play and how it affected him statistically.

Travis Kelce 1,000-yard seasons streak ends

Kelce was one of several Chiefs players who did not take the field for the final week of the regular season. Even without all of their starters, the team still managed to slide past the Chargers with a 13-12 victory.

Kelce's streak of 1,000-yard seasons was broken because he sat out of the game, but he had good reasons behind his decision.

He was officially ruled out because of a "coaching decision." This is reasonable given because the Chiefs were already locked into their playoff seed, which obviously has much more importance than the final, inconsequential game of the regular season against Los Angeles.

MORE: Where is Travis Kelce? Why Chiefs tight end isn't playing vs. Chargers in Week 18 or attending Golden Globes

Head coach Andy Reid called Kelce's decision not to play a "humble" one.

“He is a humble, humble guy,” Reid said in a report from Ed Easton of USA Today. “It’s different because of the financial part of it, with Chris (Jones). (Kelce) didn’t want to be selfish or come across as selfish. All the players want him to play, but he just goes, ‘You know what? I don’t like the way it feels.’ He’s not into that. He chose not to play, and I completely understand it. But that’s him. Most guys would have gone out and probably done it, but he said, ‘I’ve got a lot of records on this one here; I’m not going to do it this way.’

Other players who did not play included quarterback Patrick Mahomes, wide receivers Rashee Rice and Kadrius Toney, offensive tackle Donovan Smith, defensive end Mike Danna, and cornerback L'Jarius Sneed.

Rice, Toney, and Sneed were all inactive due to injury reasons.

With Kelce not playing, Swift did not attend the fame. It's expected she would not have been able to anyway, though, with the Golden Globe Awards set to start just three-and-half hours after the game's 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff time.

Expect Kelce (and Swift) to both be back in full swing, though, as Kansas City faces Miami in the wild-card round of the playoffs on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.

Travis Kelce career stats

Kelce has finished with at least 1,000 receiving yards every season of his career between 2016 and '22, with a low of 1,083 yards in '17 over that stretch.

Before his streak started, Kelce was not far off from reaching the 1,000-yard mark in his first two seasons, finishing with 862 and 875 receiving yards, respectively, after he was selected by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft.

Kelce's streak ended 2023 with 984 receiving yards, just 16 yards shy of keeping the streak active.