NFL fans cannot believe a strange-but-true fact regarding the age of Kansas City Chiefs’ superstar tight end Travis Kelce.
Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team pointed out that Kelce, who turned 34 years of age on Thursday, is the same age as retired New England Patriots’ and Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Football fans were left in shock over Meirov’s tweet:
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It’s hard to believe because Gronkowski was a second-round pick of the Patriots back in 2010, just before his 21st birthday. Kelce, also born in 1989, wasn’t drafted until the third round by the Chiefs three years later.
While Gronkowski was a superstar from the get-go, Kelce only played one game in his rookie year and didn’t earn his first Pro Bowl nod until 2015. Kelce officially grew into a superstar when he posted his first 1,000-yard season in 2016. By that point, Gronkowski already had three 1,000-yard seasons under his belt.
Tony Gonzalez has something to say about this, but Gronkowski and Kelce made strong cases as the two greatest tight ends of all-time. While Kelce has been remarkably durable throughout his career, injuries unfortunately cut into Gronk’s career.
He missed five games in 2012 plus the Patriots’ postseason run, all but seven games in 2013, all but eight games in 2016, three games in 2018 and five in 2021. Injuries prompted him to sit out his age-30 season in 2019 (retirement) before he came back to play for the Bucs in 2020.
Nonetheless, Gronk left his mark as one of the NFL’s all-time great offensive weapons with four Super Bowl rings and 92 touchdowns in just 143 games.
