Chiefs' Travis Kelce on the 'Battle' of Finding 'Energy' in Stadiums Without Fans This NFL Season
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Coming off a Super Bowl win in February, Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce says trying to match a similar energy during this unconventional season is nothing short of a "battle."
As football stadiums are only allowing a small percentage of fans to sit in the stands due to COVID-19 restrictions — and some stadiums still say no fans at all — Kelce tells PEOPLE that it's important to "find and create energy and create momentum for your team" when there's not a crowd there to help.
"You've got to find your own energy and that's been a battle for a lot of teams is in those atmospheres where you're not playing in front of a lot of people or there's no fans in the stands," he says.
The 31-year-old tight end reveals he relies on his teammates to help keep the "overall team energy up."
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"Sometimes it takes a guy to get fired up on the sidelines to do it," he explains. "When you make plays on the field or your guys will make a play on the field, you’ve got to get excited."
"As soon as you get complacent with where you are in a game, that's where you come and then it bites you in the rear," Kelce adds. "So you just want to make sure that you're keeping that energy high, when guys are making plays you're getting excited for them and you're staying locked in through all 60 minutes of the game."
The athlete admits playing without a crowd is "no fun for the player or the fans to not experience that Sunday, that game day experience that we all know and love."
Still, Kelce is looking on the bright side.
"We're going to come out rocking 10 times more knowing that we had a season or a whole season or a half a season of having struggled through no fans," he says.
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Off the field, the athlete tells PEOPLE the pandemic has also made it hard to bond with his teammates as they aren't allowed to be with more than four players outside of their facility.
"It's unfortunate we can't do a group dinner, a Halloween party or a Christmas party, we can't have these things this year just because of the rules," he says.
Kelce explains that now, more than ever, it's important to "make sure that you're enjoying [time] with the guys."
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He adds, "Always get that extra meal just because you know you're not getting the off the field time that you typically would get with everyone."
Aside from being excited to eventually "enjoy football the way we know it" with a packed stadium, Kelce is also looking forward to his television acting debut on Showtime's upcoming comedy series, Moonbase 8.
Kelce makes a hilarious guest-starring role as an astronaut in training alongside Fred Armisen, John C. Reilly and Tim Heidecker, whose characters are all living in a remote NASA Moon Base Simulator with hopes of being chosen to travel to the moon.
Courtesy A24/SHOWTIME
The athlete says it was a "dream" to be able to work with such comedy greats on the series, sharing it was a "cool experience to just be around them and see their professional artwork and their structure."
Kelce says the actors even gave him "pointers here and there" during their time together on set.
"They saw it in me that I was in uncharted territory. I had never been in a scene trying to portray a certain image like that on camera," he says of playing the bossy astronaut character.
Adding, "It was a real eye-opener for me."
Moonbase 8 premieres Sunday, Nov. 8 at 11 p.m. EST/PST on Showtime.
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