Before they were NFL stars, brothers Jason and Travis Kelce were aspiring young athletes in Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Travis Kelce/Instagram
Travis and Jason Kelce’s Baby Photos Go Viral
Before they were NFL stars, Jason and Travis Kelce were the cutest kids in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Amid the brothers’ newfound fame as Travis, 34, continues his budding romance with Taylor Swift, baby photos of the Ohio natives have gone viral on social media.
In the adorable photos, shared in 2013 on Travis’s Instagram account, Jason, 35, and his younger brother are pictured as babies in a side-by-side split. On the left, Jason is pictured holding a toy football while Travis is seen in a red sweater walking towards the camera.
In his caption on the Sept. 19, 2013 post, Travis wrote, “#KELCE vs #KELCE…. I might not be playing tonight vs my bro but who are you all taking in a #BabyKelceBrawl?”
Travis didn’t play in the 2013 game due to a knee injury, but the Chiefs still managed to pull off a 26-16 win over Jason’s Philadelphia Eagles.
Related: Jason Kelce Cries Talking About Whether He Should Retire in New Doc: ‘Tearing My Body Apart’
Travis Kelce/Instagram
Jason and Travis Kelce’s baby photos
A decade later, the brothers faced one another in the 2023 Super Bowl, which NFL fans dubbed “The Kelce Bowl” at the time.
Before the big game in February, Jason and Travis’s mom Donna Kelce shared exclusive throwback photos with PEOPLE from the NFL stars’ childhood.
At the time, Donna told PEOPLE that she and their father, Ed Kelce, “didn’t know what sport they were going to pick” to pursue professionally, because both Jason and Travis “were very good at a lot of sports.”
Courtesy of Donna and Ed Kelce Throwback of Travis and Jason Kelce
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According to Donna, they both excelled at football, baseball, lacrosse, soccer, basketball and baseball as children.
Jason also explored wrestling in his younger years, Donna shared. “I think Jason liked lacrosse the best and Travis liked basketball the best,” she recalled.
Another photo from the Kelces’ childhood shows a young Travis — now a tight end on the Kansas City Chiefs — dressed head-to-toe in Browns gear while standing beside the now-Philadelphia Eagles’ Jason, who is dressed casually in blue jeans, a red t-shirt and a windbreaker outside the family’s home.
Courtesy of Donna and Ed Kelce Throwback of Travis and Jason Kelce
Donna said both Jason and Travis are equally competitive and it’s always been that way.
“They do not like to lose,” she shared. “That’s why they’re the professionals that they are. It’s give everything you can. When you don’t think you have any more in the tank, you push harder and you find out how far you can stretch yourself.”
Jumping forward a few years, the boys are pictured in their Cleveland Heights High School uniforms, where their football dreams started to become reality.
Courtesy of Donna and Ed Kelce Throwback of Travis and Jason Kelce
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Donna has fond memories of her time taking the boys to compete during their pre-NFL careers. “My most favorite games were Bearcat games at the University of Cincinnati, just because of my camaraderie with the parents,” she said.
“You’re with those kids and parents for five years,” Donna explained. “Nobody’s getting traded, nobody’s quitting and going to another school. It’s just you’re with these people on the road, in rain and cold and snow and sleet and everything else. And you get really close bonds with those individuals.”
