Donna Kelce, the mother of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, 34, and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, 36, is one proud mama! She made history at Super Bowl LVII in February 2023 by becoming the first mom to ever have her sons compete against each other in a championship game. Ultimately, Travis won a ring in the big game, but it’s clear she was excited to see both her sons in the big game.
While Donna received much coverage during the 2023 Super Bowl, she has also made headlines because of Travis’ relationship with Taylor Swift, who has attended multiple Kansas City Chiefs games. The “Anti-Hero” singer, 34, was seen hanging out with the NFL mom several times throughout the season. With the 2024 Super Bowl coming up, Donna is expected to cheer on Travis alongside Taylor!
Donna Kelce joining Taylor Swift for SNF 🙌
📺: #KCvsNYJ on NBC⁰📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/cLJQ8MOopx pic.twitter.com/U6tmmR2oSP
— NFL (@NFL) October 2, 2023
So, who is the woman who raised two NFL stars? Read on to learn about Travis and Jason Kelce’s mom.
Donna Kelce Is Retired
Donna was a working mom. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in communications from Ohio University and landed her first job at Bank One as an equity writer, according to her LinkedIn page. She began working there in 1981 and enrolled in classes at Baldwin Wallace University that same year. She graduated with her Master of Business Administration in 1983. In 2003, she became the vice president at Key Community Development Corporation, where she stayed for just over seven years. She then served Truist as the senior vice president for 12 years before retiring in 2021. Now, she appears to be a full-time NFL mom.
Donna Kelce Is a Dedicated Football Mom
Donna is often spotted in the stands at her sons’ football games, as depicted by her Twitter page, and it turns out there is little she wouldn’t do to see both of them play. She made headlines in Jan. 2023 when she watched both Travis and Jason’s Wild Card playoff matches in person, traveling more than 1,200 miles in one day to do so. She first watched Jason’s Eagles game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Florida (where Jason unfortunately lost) and then caught a plane to head to Missouri to see Travis play against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
From Tampa Bay to Kansas City ✈️
Donna Kelce made it to see both of her sons’ playoff games today ❤️
(via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/HSA2d8WzfU
— ESPN (@espn) January 17, 2022
Although she was a bit late, she made it in time to see Travis throw his first touchdown pass in his NFL career. She was then able to surprise him during the post-game press conference by asking him how it felt to win, per CNN. “To finally throw a touchdown like I used to tell my mom, when I was like five years old, that I was going to eventually throw a touchdown in the National Football League, I finally got it done,” he replied. “It only took me nine years. That’s a good question though, Mom.”
Her one flaw is that she cannot be in two places at once, and she had to pick between watching the Eagles and Chiefs play on Sunday, Jan. 30 — the game that solidified both her sons’ places in the 2023 Super Bowl. She ended up watching Jason play against the San Francisco 49ers and explained how she came to her decision in an interview with Fox News. “I decided, ‘Alright, I’m gonna go to the Chiefs-Jags game, because that’s never happened before, and then go to the championship for Jason,’” she noted. “I knew I was gonna go to one for each.”
Donna Kelce Hinted That She Favored One Son to Win Super Bowl LVII
Mama Kelce has her swag ready for tomorrow’s Battle of the Kelces!! #ChiefsKingdom vs #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/DsL3HSVVJC
— Eighty-Seven & Running (@87Running) September 17, 2017
Donna spoke about how she wanted to be supportive of both of her sons during the big game in a February 2023 interview on Today. “Obviously, there’s gonna be somebody that’s gonna go home heartbroken, they’re not gonna have bragging rights at the Thanksgiving table, but this is gonna be an awesome event and I’m really looking forward to it,” she said.
Donna admitted that she may have favored one son over the other — all because one son has given her grandchildren. “Both fanbases are absolutely amazing and give everything they have on gameday,” she gushed. “I think that Jason would say that I’m going to root for the baby of the family, which is Travis, and I keep trying to tell him, ‘No, you’ve given me grandchildren.’ So, we’ll leave it at that. It’s always about the grands!” On a more serious note, she said she would simply root for the team with the ball.
At the end of the game, Travis won with the Chiefs. Prior to the game, Donna did say that she would greet her younger son on the field first, since Jason’s family would be in attendance at the game. While Eagles fans were disappointed for the loss, Donna was clearly still very proud of both sons.
Donna Kelce Raised Competitive Sons
Donna revealed her Ohio-born sons were always competitive, so the fact that they’re now competing against each other in one of the sports world’s biggest championships is no surprise. “It was always a competition. Who gets to the table first. Who’s got the last chicken wing. Who’s gonna get in the front seat of the car. Who’s gonna take the elevator and get down to the bottom floor first,” she told the New York Post in a Jan. 31 interview. “It just always was competition. And they don’t like to lose. They want to win, and that’s just the way they are.”
She went on to say that the competition only made them closer as adults. “You hate each other when you’re growing up, but later on in life, you’re best buds, because you’ve gone through everything together, so it’s kinda fun,” she raved. “They competed with the best that they had in the city. … It was living right next to them, you know? In the next room. Whether it was — mini-hockey in the basement, whatever, it was always competition.”
Donna Kelce Was Protective Over Her Sons as They Grew Up
During the same interview, Donna said her sons were ready to dedicate their lives to sports from an early age. They started playing hockey at the age of 3 and lived and breathed the sport — with Jason even begging her to let him start taking the sport more seriously by moving to Canada and playing in the junior leagues. However, she was not going to let her baby go. “I’m like, ‘There’s no way I’m letting somebody else raise my kid. He was good enough, he coulda played anywhere, he was really, really good. But it’s like you’re away from your family most of the year. It just wasn’t an option,” she explained.
Travis and Jason were already huge fans of football, but Donna did not let them play until middle school for safety reasons. “Nobody ever says, ‘I was the best peewee football player ever.’ And it’s not very well organized. So there’s always suspect to parents and injuries and things like that,” she recalled. “They’re not really trained coaches, so I made them wait until they were in middle school to play football. They played seventh and eighth grade.” Their delayed start clearly didn’t hold them back!
Donna even wears two separate “good luck charm” bracelets whenever she attends Travis and Jason’s games, she told Us Weekly in November 2023.
