Travis Kelce Says His College Suspension for Marijuana ‘Worked Out Perfect’

Travis Kelce’s college suspension for marijuana tainted how high he went in the 2013 NFL Draft, but he has no regrets on how things turned out.

“The funny thing about Trav is that there was nothing outside of the injuries [that plagued his draft ranking]. I guess you had two things,” Jason Kelce said during the Wednesday, April 30, episode of his and Travis’ “New Heights” podcast. “You had a few injuries, and then you obviously had the marijuana thing stemming from your sophomore year.”

Travis, 35, was suspended during his sophomore year from the University of Cincinnati football team after he failed his drug screening, testing positive for weed. “You saying ‘marijuana’ makes it sound so more intense,” Travis teased. “Why does that word sound so intense?”

Jason, 37, noted that the intense part was how the blimp on Travis’ college record affected his draft pick. Travis went in the third round during the 2013 draft, but according to Jason he should’ve gone quicker.

See the Moment the Chiefs Drafted Travis Kelce in the 2013 NFL Draft

“You probably got drafted an entire round later than you should have,” Jason explained. “I just think it’s funny sometimes looking back and, like, there are all these concerns about Travis Kelce and, like, everybody who ever knew you knew you were a great kid. You just had, like, a mess up with weed. Sorry. And then all of a sudden, like, teams aren’t picking you for it.”

Jason added that nowadays NFL players openly smoke weed and question, “We’re gonna act like this is a death sentence?” Travis jokingly replied, “Yeah, we are.”

While Jason is still a little miffed by when Travis was drafted — he was picked by the Kansas City Chiefs, where he still plays tight end — Travis is unfazed by his draft rank.

Travis Kelce Looked Like a Totally Different Person in His Combine Photo

Travis admitted the draft “worked out perfect” as he’s been with the Chiefs for more than a decade and won three Super Bowls with them.

Jason, however, confessed he thinks Travis should’ve responded to the demotion by doing exactly what he was penalized for: smoking weed.

“I just want everybody that drops in the draft for whatever character concerns, if it ever pans out, they should just do that exact same character concern,” he teased. “Like, you should have just walked into signing your second deal with a blunt in your hand smoking it as a sign of the paper.”

Jason clarified, “I’m not condoning smoking weed, but unless you sign a multimillion-year deal you wanna say ‘f*** you’ to all the people that doubted you because you did smoke weed.”

Travis previously spoke about his suspension affecting the draft, telling his podcast listeners that the Dallas Cowboys “were kind of pressing me about having this red flag of missing a year” which is probably why they passed on him.

Jason Kelce Reacts to ‘Frustrating’ Criticism of Travis’ NFL Performance

The NFL player, however, is confident that the weed mishap and missing his sophomore year was the best thing for his career.

“What [the suspension] did was it really kicked me into the tight end room,” Travis recalled during a 2023 appearance on the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast. “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.’”

During his suspension, Travis decided to become a tight end and he is now considered one of the best the NFL has ever seen.