Ed Kelce’s Net Worth: From ‘Blue Collar’ Town to Raising 2 Super Bowl Stars
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When your kids are Travis and Jason Kelce, it’s only natural that people are going to wonder about your family—and that even includes finances. While Ed Kelce’s net worth can’t quite compare to how much his sons make as NFL players, the father of two definitely carved out a successful career and life for himself.
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Ed Kelce was the oldest of two children. He grew up in what he described as a “blue collar” neighborhood, revealing on an episode of his sons’ podcast “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce” that he had “a lot of fun” in his hometown. Like his sons, he played football in high school—but he ultimately had to drop the sport due to a knee injury.
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After graduating from high school, Ed attended Ohio State University for about a “quarter and a half” before heading home. While he went on to take a few credits at two other schools, he soon turned his attention to the military, as generations of his family did before him. “Everybody in my family prior to me was in the service,” Ed told his sons on their “New Heights” podcast. “We’re also talking about family [that] lived through World War II, so that’s what everybody did because that was the background.”
Unfortunately, the Army rejected Ed’s application due to the same knee injury that ended his football career. He went on to enlist for the Coast Guard—only for his dreams to be cut short again. During boot camp, Ed learned that he had Crohn’s disease: “I’d never had that before, and I was sick. I went through most of the basic training with some severe gastrointestinal issues,” he said on his sons’ podcast. “They don’t need sick people in the service, they need people who are ready to perform.”
Forced to pivot once again, Ed went on to have a successful career in the steel industry. He even made a habit of bringing his sons to work with him from time to time so that they could experience his job for themselves. “I’d take them there — hard hat, safety glasses, boots, the whole nine yards,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I’d tell them, ‘You can have a job like your mother’s, or you can have a job like mine.'” Travis and Jason Kelce’s mother, Donna Kelce, graduated with a Masters in Business Administration and worked in finance until she retired in 2021.
Ed’s love story with Donna began when they both went to the same bar one night. As it turns out, Donna was actually on her way to another date before she decided to grab a drink first. Ed stopped by the bar after work, still covered in dirt from head to toe after working at the steel mill all day. “I’m in coveralls that are covered in cement,” Ed said on an episode of his sons’ podcast. “We started talking and she gave me a ride home.” Donna ended up skipping her original date! Not wanting the night to end, Ed took a quick shower before taking her to another bar. “She came in and I told her ‘hold on, let me change.'”
Donna and Ed went on to tie the knot in the late ’70s. About five years after their wedding, the pair welcomed their oldest son, Jason, followed by Travis two years later. They went on to raise their boys in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, before sending their sons off to the University of Cincinnati. Jason and Travis would each go on to play college football before they were both drafted by the NFL in 2011 and 2013, respectively.
After both of their sons graduated from college, Ed and Donna went their separate ways, filing for divorce from each other after about 25 years of marriage. The former couple opened up about their divorce in the 2023 documentary, Kelce. In the doc, the proud parents talked about their decision to stay together as long as they did for the sake of their kids. As Ed explained in the film, “If we had split as we probably both would have preferred, that would have been a nightmare with the logistics, getting kids where they had to be and providing all the support.”
Ultimately, we’d say it all worked out for the best: Donna and Ed raised two NFL superstars, both of whom have made it to the Super Bowl twice. They had to get their hard work ethic from somewhere, which also begs the question: what is Ed Kelce’s net worth? For everything we know about how much the father of two is worth today, keep on reading ahead.
What is Ed Kelce’s net worth?
While Ed Kelce’s net worth is not confirmed, Players Wiki lists his net worth as $100,000 as of 2023. Considering that he’s raised two Super Bowl stars, however, it’s possible that Ed Kelce’s net worth is even higher today.
As for his sons, Travis and Jason Kelce’s contracts make them among the highest-paid NFL players in the league. Travis Kelce’s net worth is currently around $30 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The Kansas City Chief tight end renewed his contract with the team in 2022 for $57.25 million, landing him an annual salary of $14.3 million until 2026. The football star also has brand deals with Nike, Old Spice, T-Mobile and Dick’s Sporting Goods, McDonalds and Papa Johns, among others.
Compared to his brother, Travis has joked about how he doesn’t get paid enough, telling Vanity Fair, “My managers and agents love to tell me how underpaid I am. Any time I talk about wanting more money, they’re just like, ‘Why don’t you go to the Chiefs and ask them?”
Meanwhile, Travis’ brother Jason Kelce‘s net worth is estimated to be slightly higher at $40 million. The Philadelphia Eagles player is considered to be the highest-paid center in the NFL. Jason’s contract was renewed for one year in 2023 at $14.25 million, which includes a base salary of $1,165,000 and a $10,335,000 signing bonus. The athlete’s fortune is also made up of lucrative endorsement deals and real estate investments, including a property in his hometown of Cleveland and a nine-acre farm in Pennsylvania.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ed relocated from Cleveland to Philadelphia to be closer to Jason, his wife, Kylie, and their three children. He currently lives a mile away from the farm where Jason and Kylie are raising their kids, and he regularly visits to help with growing and picking produce from their garden, per the Los Angeles Times.
When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl
For more about the Super Bowl, football fans can check out When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl by Harvey Frommer. The best-selling book delves into the history of the first Super Bowl, which was originally known as the AFL-NFL Championship Game. (The term “Super Bowl” was coined only in its third year.) The debut game, between the winning Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs, was played in front of only 61,946 people at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum—an audience well below the stadium’s capacity. Harvey Frommer, a sports historian and reporter, puts the tale of that momentous game together using oral history, gathered by hundreds of interviews with players, coaches, media and spectators alike.
Remembering The First Super Bowl
11.49+
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