\n<\/p>\n
In the only recent year in which Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs weren\u2019t playing in the Super Bowl, the N.F.L. star was driving around Los Angeles in early February with his business managers, Andr\u00e9 and Aaron Eanes, marveling at billboards featuring Dwayne Johnson, the actor and entertainer better known as the Rock.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever be as famous as the Rock,\u201d Mr. Kelce said.<\/p>\n
His co-managers looked at each other. \u201cWe\u2019re like, Yes, you can,\u201d Andr\u00e9 Eanes said.<\/p>\n
The twin brothers had known since Mr. Kelce was at the University of Cincinnati that the 6-foot-5 athletic star with the Marvel-character physique, blue eyes and affable charm had crossover potential.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s be honest. Nobody imagined this<\/em>.<\/p>\n This<\/em> was a year even The Rock might envy. Mr. Kelce, a tight end, won the Super Bowl (his second) in February. In March, he hosted \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d He\u2019s starred in seven national television commercials. The podcast he co-hosts with his brother, Jason, is among the most popular on Spotify. He launched a clothing line with his team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And he\u2019s dating the world\u2019s most famous pop singer. Perhaps you\u2019ve heard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Kelce\u2019s sudden conquering of the zeitgeist \u2014 being put on the map, if you will \u2014 has taken even die-hard football fans by surprise. The reality is that most of his ascent has been years in the making \u2014 the result of a carefully manicured business plan developed by the 34-year-old Eanes brothers that blossomed at precisely the right moment.<\/p>\n The Chiefs have spent the last few years as the most unstoppable force in football and, along the way, Mr. Kelce\u2019s other team has grown to include a creative strategist, a community outreach coordinator, a Los Angeles-based publicist, a personal chef and a trainer. He has four football agents, led by Mike Simon at VMG. In the spring, he also became a client of Creative Artists Agency to feed his budding acting itch.<\/p>\n The Eanes brothers coordinate it all, managing the surging flow of incoming traffic for a piece of Kelce Inc. Film scripts have been shared among the team. Game shows are a consideration. Maybe a few less commercials.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople say to me, \u2018Man, it\u2019s been a crazy year,\u2019\u201d Aaron Eanes said. \u201cWhen I say, \u2018Actually, it\u2019s not that crazy,\u2019 people look at me funny. It\u2019s because it\u2019s easy when you have a plan. We\u2019re executing that plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Before you run to YouTube and TikTok to research conspiracy theories, no, the plan did not include Taylor Swift.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Kelce\u2019s managers have a window of time between the ending of the Super Bowl in February and the beginning of training camp in July in which their plan for the Kelce brand must unfold. Once the season starts, Mr. Kelce manifests what he wants on his own.<\/p>\n But while Mr. Kelce\u2019s shift into a more mainstream form of celebrity was planned out before he met Ms. Swift, there is no question that the doubling of his prospective audience \u2014 from mostly men between the ages of 18 and 49 to a far larger group bolstered heavily by Ms. Swift\u2019s female fans of all ages \u2014 has changed the calculus for where the plan goes from here.<\/p>\n \u201cThe awareness of Travis is much larger and with an even broader audience,\u201d said Richard Lovett, C.A.A.\u2019s co-chairman. \u201cIt\u2019s accelerated that which was probably inevitable in terms of his level of awareness and appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Andr\u00e9 Eanes, who manages Mr. Kelce\u2019s portfolio of 28 investments, first met his client through Mr. Kelce\u2019s college roommate, D.J. Woods, a childhood friend of Mr. Eanes, who grew up near Cleveland. They became close when Mr. Eanes started an event management business while still in college that booked venues and hosted D.J.s around Cincinnati. Mr. Eanes became Mr. Kelce\u2019s go-to guy for a V.I.P. pass.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHe was always the life of the party,\u201d Mr. Eanes said of Mr. Kelce. \u201cEveryone wanted to go hang out with Travis.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, Aaron Eanes was studying sport management and entrepreneurship at Bowling Green University in northern Ohio. He wanted to help athletes grow their careers. But he had no interest in becoming a traditional sports agent.<\/p>\n \u201cAgents are contract advisers,\u201d Mr. Eanes said. \u201cI thought instead about a music model and building a business where there\u2019s coordination with all their external providers.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Eanes hadn\u2019t even graduated when he began pitching college football players about the services of a manager in addition to a traditional agent. It was an unusual proposition at the time for most players, whose focus primarily was on getting that first professional contract. But Mr. Kelce seemed to grasp the bigger picture that his friends were charting. He became the second client of A&A Management, the company that the Eanes brothers still run.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was unusual,\u201d said Mr. Simon, Mr. Kelce\u2019s agent. \u201cI think his thought process at the time was, \u2018Let\u2019s all do this together, and we\u2019ll figure it out as we go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Kelce\u2019s first glint of mainstream publicity came in a 2015 feature in Complex <\/em>magazine, in which he stood on a pool table wearing a burgundy velour Versace jumpsuit and Gucci sunglasses. A short time later, Aaron Eanes got a call from a producer from E! about a reality dating show. \u201cI was like, Absolutely not!\u201d Mr. Eanes said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The brothers eventually relented, thinking that a TV show might open other doors. After \u201cCatching Kelce,\u201d which ran for eight episodes and never did find Mr. Kelce\u2019s true love, they agreed that reality television was one and done. Instead, Mr. Kelce, a lifelong comedy fan, gave his co-managers a lofty goal to chase: He wanted to be on \u201cS.N.L.\u201d<\/p>\n Aaron Eanes reached out to the show\u2019s producers during the 2020 season, but their reciprocated interest sounded lukewarm at best. That changed in October 2021 after Mr. Kelce dropped into an \u201cS.N.L.\u201d <\/em>after-party before a game in Philadelphia and went to work, chatting up (and impressing) Lorne Michaels.<\/p>\n The day after the Chiefs defeated the Eagles in the Super Bowl last February, Aaron Eanes\u2019s phone rang at 9 a.m. It was \u201cS.N.L.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s even been to sleep yet,\u201d Mr. Eanes told the booking agent.<\/p>\n After walking out onto the stage at Rockefeller Center\u2019s Studio 8H on March 4, less than a month after the Super Bowl win, Mr. Kelce choked up during the show\u2019s opening monologue at the enormity of fulfilling a childhood dream. He had brought his family along for the ride: his brother, Jason, the Eagles\u2019 center; and his parents, Ed and Donna, who the Eanes brothers help manage free of charge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After \u201cS.N.L.,\u201d the Eanes brothers began interviewing Hollywood agencies that had stronger connections in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just two guys that live in Ohio,\u201d Aaron Eanes joked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Lovett and Tom Young, C.A.A.\u2019s co-head of sports media, both said that Mr. Kelce had an easygoing charisma and a coachable nature that made producers want to work with him. \u201cDecision makers and those folks that are meant to be visionary about who\u2019s the next potential movie star, those folks had already tapped into Travis even coming out of \u2018Saturday Night Live,\u2019\u201d Mr. Lovett said. \u201cAnd probably before.\u201d<\/p>\n But nothing was being rushed, Aaron Eanes said. That\u2019s not Mr. Kelce\u2019s style. And Mr. Eanes had already been laying the groundwork for his client\u2019s path to the A-list. Throughout 2022, Mr. Eanes had targeted endorsement deals with companies that were not traditional N.F.L. partners \u2014 like promoting vaccines for Pfizer, for instance, or a new debit card from Experian. The purpose was to build out Mr. Kelce\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 as a stand-alone pitchman, rather than yet another interchangeable player in a commercial for one of the N.F.L.\u2019s partners, capitalizing on a foundation built by the league.<\/p>\n Danielle Salzedo, a veteran brand strategist who joined Mr. Kelce\u2019s management team after 14 years at Viacom, said she has adopted marketing lessons from working with music artists like Harry Connick Jr., who was constantly willing to reinvent himself to reach new audiences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThat ability to continue to evolve what your image is and stay current but still remain elevated, from someone who is already a global star,\u201d Ms. Salzedo said, \u201cis something that I think Travis has the ability to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Kelce\u2019s inner circle insists that his time as a viral celebrity hasn\u2019t changed him. His personal chef, Kumar Ferguson, has been pals with Mr. Kelce since they played recreational basketball together in the fourth grade. He drives home-cooked meals (typically wild rice, chicken and veggies) to the Chiefs\u2019 practice facility every day so that he and Mr. Kelce can have lunch together.<\/p>\n Despite the growing pile of distractions, Mr. Kelce\u2019s longtime trainer, Alex Skacel, said the star tight end\u2019s dedication to football has never been stronger.<\/p>\n Mr. Skacel likes to share the story of a visit to Paris Fashion Week a few years ago, when he and Mr. Kelce took a late-night jog around the city because Mr. Kelce was antsy for a workout after an entire day of sitting by the runway. \u201cIt\u2019s midnight, and we\u2019re doing sprints over the bridges over the river,\u201d Mr. Skacel said. \u201cNo matter where he is, he finds time to get done whatever he needs to get done.\u201d<\/p>\n While 2023 was a nearly perfect year for Mr. Kelce, Aaron Eanes said the increased attention has his team considering a potential area of concern: oversaturation. Is there too much <\/em>of Mr. Kelce on television and in the news, and could fans grow numb to the sight of him? The plan for next year revolves around one word: curation. Fewer deals. Quality over quantity. Authenticity first.<\/p>\n After a midweek visit to New York to talk at a sports business conference, the Eanes brothers were rushing to catch flights to Ohio for a few days with family before heading back to Kansas City, where the Chiefs were playing the Buffalo Bills in a clash of two top teams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The game was decided in the final moments by a penalty that reversed what would likely have become a signature play in Mr. Kelce\u2019s career.<\/p>\n Trailing by three, Mr. Kelce caught a pass in the open field. Then, as he was about to be tackled, he showed off the arm he had used as a high school quarterback, throwing a perfect pass back to an open teammate who raced in for what appeared to be a game-winning score. The only problem was that the teammate had lined up incorrectly before the play, which erased the touchdown.<\/p>\n The Chiefs went on to lose the game, but once again, Mr. Kelce had found a way to be in the middle of everything.<\/p>\n \u201cWe positioned Travis to be world famous,\u201d Andr\u00e9 Eanes said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know how it would happen, or when it would happen, or what would help push that further along. But it\u2019s always been the thought in the back of our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n