“I realized this boy is just a regular cool dude”: How Travis Kelce left an undrafted Chiefs rookie stunned with one unexpected gesture

Travis Kelce has built a reputation as one of the Kansas City Chiefs’ biggest stars, but one of his most memorable moments with a teammate had nothing to do with football. It happened in a training camp lunchroom in 2023, when an undrafted rookie found himself sitting alone with no familiar faces around him. Kelce noticed him, walked over and did something so ordinary that it caught the rookie completely off guard. For Izaiah Gathings, that small moment changed the way he saw the veteran tight end. Travis Kelce made an isolated rookie feel at homeGathings entered the Chiefs as an undrafted rookie in 2023 after spending time with the New York Jets. When he arrived at Kansas City’s training camp in St. Joseph, Missouri, he barely knew anyone on the roster. After one practice, he walked into the lunchroom, grabbed his food and sat by himself while looking at his phone.Then Kelce walked over. As Gathings later explained on his YouTube channel, he was eating quietly when he noticed two plates of food being placed beside him. Kelce then sat down and asked, “Yo what’s up with you, my boy. You straight?”For Gathings, the surprise came from more than the food. This was Travis Kelce, one of the biggest names in the NFL, choosing to sit beside an undrafted rookie he barely knew and have a normal conversation. The Kansas City Star reported the story on January 5, 2024, after Gathings shared the experience.Gathings admitted that he was stunned by how casually Kelce treated him. “Just imagine you sitting there eating your lunch and all of a sudden Travis Kelce comes up beside you and say, ‘Boy, you straight?’ And then proceeds to sit down and have a normal convo with me, like just a regular convo,” he said.That interaction stayed with Gathings because Kelce never made him feel like the new guy who had to prove himself before getting noticed. Instead, he simply pulled up a chair and talked to him.“At that moment right there with my boy Trav, I realized like bro is just a regular cool a** dude, bro,” Gathings said. “Funny as hell, like fun to be around. Bro is cool as hell.” Clyde Edwards-Helaire found the same support in a harder momentGathings was not the only young Chiefs player who felt Kelce’s support away from the field. Clyde Edwards-Helaire has spoken openly about how Kelce noticed when he was struggling with his mental health and became someone he could lean on.During The Pivot Podcast episode released on November 8, 2024, Edwards-Helaire described Kelce as a “big brother” and said, “I really look at him as a big brother and I needed somebody to lean on.” He also revealed that Kelce would check in on him and called him “GBC,” short for Good Brother Clyde.Months earlier, Edwards-Helaire had explained why Kelce's support stood out. “In a lot of those times kind of dealing with my mental health, it seemed like nobody else noticed,” he said. “And he did, you know?”Kelce later shared the podcast episode on X and called Edwards-Helaire “one of the strongest men I know.”Those moments show a side of his leadership that does not appear on the stat sheet. He notices people, especially teammates who might otherwise feel overlooked, and makes sure they know they are not alone.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.