After the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII in early 2023, Travis Kelce was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. The Chiefs' tight end, now a two-time Super Bowl champion, was asked to host Saturday Night Live in February of that same year.
Athletes hosting SNL isn't a new concept, and Kelce became one of many athletes to try his hand at the sketch comedy show that's been on the air since 1975. Most would agree that the star tight end did well, maybe not matching the comedic stylings of Peyton Manning, but doing far better than some of the duds like Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps.
Kelce recently spoke about his SNL experience from two years ago and revealed what the hardest part of it was for him. During a recent chat with the guys on the Bussin' With The Boys podcast, Kelce said that the table read was a challenge for him because he's not great in that department.
“The writers’ rooms were fun because you’re just getting pitched ideas,” Kelce said. “The table reading, for a guy that can’t really read that well, it was kind of a f---ed situation.
“I felt like I was just trying to get through the reading instead of actually acting it out and giving it a voice and giving it a character and things like that,” he continued. “I was just focused on, ‘Don’t f---ing skip this line.'”
Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce says the table read was the most challenging part of his SNL hosting gig
For those who might not be familiar with how SNL is run, the writers and performers spend a week creating sketches, hoping that they'll get on the air. The host joins in, and the entire group goes through a table read, meaning they're reading a lot of different sketches to see which ones get laughs and which ones might fall flat.
If someone wasn't a particularly strong reader, as Kelce claims he's not, it's not hard to see why this would be difficult for him.
He's being put on the spot and forced to read out loud when that's not a strength of his. As he mentioned, though, he said he should have focused more on the acting aspect rather than reading every single word.
For what it's worth, Kelce did well during his time on the sketch comedy show. During his monologue, he was able to poke fun at himself for the terrible dating show he was on in 2015, "Catching Kelce".
It's funny because at the time, Peacock didn't want the rights to it, which Kelce joked about, but as soon as his relationship with Taylor Swift blew up, guess what show was streaming on Peacock?
It'd be fun if Kelce was asked back to host SNL, but considering that Manning still hasn't been back as a host after bringing down the house in 2007, it proves the show typically only brings athletes on when they're fresh off a championship or one of the biggest stars in the game.