Travis Kelce recently traveled south of the equator. Now, the Kansas City Chiefs star would like to travel a little farther.
On Wednesday's edition of the New Heights podcast with his brother, Philadelphia Eagles safety Jason Kelce, Travis shared an email the podcast received from SpaceX. In it, a representative from the private space and telecommunications company asked whether they would be able to "discuss spaceflight with Travis, or his team."
"This is one of the craziest things we've now spoken into existence…I just hope this doesn't implode, because it sounds like I'm about to go to space," Travis said.
Newsweek reached out to SpaceX via email for comment.
Jason, meanwhile, was less than enthused about the prospect of Kelce going to space.
"Are you really going to do this?" he asked.
"F*** man, why wouldn't I do this?" Travis replied. "Dude, I want to go to space. I want to see once and for all whether the world is flat or round."
Jason conceded that being able to prove to teammates that the world is round might be worthwhile, although the logistics of proving something that has already "kind of been proven" (as Travis put it) were less easy to pin down. The duo did agree that they could use the help of astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson to make their case.
"Not prove to scientists, but like, prove to everyday people who don't know a lot of science like me and Travis," Jason said. "Don't throw a mathematical equation or something like that at us. Leave out the obvious ones, like every other planet, sun, asteroid. Leave out that everything else in space is observably round."
Jason was particularly unimpressed with one of Travis' reasons to leave the bounds of Earth's atmosphere.
"Dude, imagine if I went up there and I saw an alien," Travis said. "Like an alien just decided to creep over to the spaceship."
"See, like this is why you shouldn't go into space if this is what you're going into space expecting," Jason answered. "Because you are not going to see an alien."
According to NASA, potential astronaut candidates typically complete two years of intensive training prior to beginning specialized mission training, but SpaceX's status as a private company might allow them to discuss particulars with Kelce.
The Chiefs, however, might not love it if their star tight end found himself on a space shuttle during the offseason. Newsweek reached out to the team via email for comment.
The Kelce brothers will face each other this week on ESPN's Monday Night Football in a rematch of last year's Super Bowl.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Tom Westerholm is a Sports & Culture Reporter for Newsweek. Prior to joining Newsweek, he was the Boston Celtics beat ... Read more
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