A big reason why Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce are so much more popular than the average NFL athlete right now is that they have moved beyond “football player” territory and become bona fide celebrities.
Of course, this is primarily driven by Travis’ relationship with Taylor Swift. The two were the talk of the 2024 NFL season and have continued to be among the top targets for the paparazzi in the years since.
But Jason is now a prominent personality for ESPN, and his wife, Kylie, hosts a popular podcast for Wave Sports + Entertainment. The brothers’ podcast, New Heights, is far and away the biggest sports podcast as well.
Capturing a photo of the brothers is big business in tabloid circles. So much so that former TMZ producer turned freelance photographer Melanie Miller recently waited five whole hours to snap a couple of pictures of them at a high-roller casino in Lake Tahoe.
Miller detailed her efforts in a recent TikTok video.
“You might be wondering, ‘How did you get these photos? Oh my god, it must be very complicated, it must be a hard process, it must be impossible,'” she said. “And the answer is, I just plopped myself down on a slot machine for five hours and waited for them to leave.”
@itsmelaniemiller #travis #traviskelce #jasonkelce #paparazzi #taylorswift #celebrity #celeb ♬ original sound – Melanie Miller
Miller went to Lake Tahoe to cover the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament. Once there, she received word that the Kelces were at a nearby casino — and that Swift might show up, too.
“The truth is, I got a tip that actually, Taylor Swift was going to be there … which I’m not sure if that actually happened. But I did see Jason’s security going up the elevator through the high roller,” she explained. “Eventually, I caught on to the fact that they were in the high-roller casino. I waited there for five hours, but I just sat at a slot machine. For five hours.”
While these photographs can be sold to various websites, social media accounts, and even print magazines for large sums of money, the process of obtaining paparazzi material is a very slow, solitary lifestyle. Yes, these photographers and videographers get to interact with celebrities, but given that they are typically despised by the people they cover and often sneak into areas they are not supposed to be, their work sounds incredibly unglamorous.