Travis Kelce has something to prove, and that’s why he’s planning to return for a 13th season with the Kansas City Chiefs.

The future Hall of Fame tight end confirmed last week that he will lace up the cleats again for the 2025 season, and he expounded on his decision during the March 5 episode of his “New Heights” podcast he hosts with his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce.

“I think the biggest thing is that I f—— love playing the game of football,” he said. “I love playing. I still feel like I could play it at a high level, and possibly at a higher level than I did last year.”

Kelce and the Chiefs got trounced by the Eagles last month in Super Bowl 59, 40-22, in a game that was never in doubt. Kelce said he’s determined to come back stronger after the disappointment of last season.

“I don’t think it was my best outing. I think I let my guys down in a lot more moments than I helped them, especially if you look at my track record and how I’ve been in years past,” he said. “I want to give it a good run. I got a bad taste in my mouth on how I ended the year and how well I was playing and how accountable I was for the people around me.”

Kelce, who has won three Super Bowls and lost two others with the Chiefs, also pointed to the ties he now has in Kansas City.

“I love so many people in Kansas City, both in that facility, in the community, and it’s home for me now,” he said.

“I don’t want to leave that life yet. I put in a lot of hard work, and I put in a lot of focus into being the best that I can for KC, and last year it didn’t end well for us. I feel like there’s a responsibility in me to play out the contract that I initially signed, to give Kansas City and the Chiefs organization everything that I got. And that’s what I’m going to do.”

Kelce is coming off one of the least productive years of his career, hauling in 97 catches for career lows of 823 yards and three touchdowns (those statistics do not include his injury-plagued first season, in which he only played one game). In last month’s Super Bowl, Kelce only caught four passes for 39 yards and no scores.

In addition to proving he can still play at a high level, Kelce said he’s eager to reunite with head coach Andy Reid and star quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

“Coach Reid has been one of the biggest influences on my life, not just in the game of football, and I don’t want to stop going to work with him,” he said.

“I don’t want to stop learning from him. I don’t want to stop being the reason why he has success, or being a part of the reason he has success. I want that guy to have the most success in the world because of who he’s been to my life. And that’s the same with Pat.”

Kelce also said losing the Super Bowl was “probably the biggest factor” contributing to his decision to come back and that winning it may have made his choice more difficult.

“It’s a pretty cool way to go out, but I think I would still have this love for the game,” he said. “I think I would have thought about it more if we would have won. I think because we lost, and how we lost.”

“I feel like I owe the guys that I come into that building with a whole lot more effort and focus,” he continued. “And I just don’t know what it was during that game, man, I wasn’t at my best.”