The Kansas City Chiefs took tight end Travis Kelce with the 63rd overall pick of the 2013 NFL Draft, but before the Chiefs selected him, Kelce drew serious interest from the Dallas Cowboys.

There was just one major sticking point for the Cowboys: Kelce’s past.

Kelce, who played his collegiate football at the University of Cincinnati, was suspended for the Bearcats’ 2010 campaign due to marijuana usage, which was against team policy.

The future Hall-of-Fame pass-catcher spoke about Dallas’ decision to pass on him during a recent episode of his New Heights podcast.

“At the combine, I had some bad interviews,” Kelce said. “The Cowboys, they were kind of pressing me about having this red flag of missing a year.”

Kelce said things with Dallas went south pretty quickly.

“It ended really fast,” Kelce said of his meeting with the Cowboys at the Scouting Combine. “I basically just said, ‘If you guys think I’m gonna be that kind of guy, or you’re questioning if I’m still that person after everything that I’ve battled through to get to where I am now from missing a season, then you guys (should) probably go somewhere else and pick somebody else.’ And that’s exactly what they did.” 

The Cowboys did take a tight end, but they opted to roll with San Diego State product Gavin Escobar at No. 47. Escobar proceeded to last four seasons in Dallas, amassing a grand total of 30 catches.

He then made his way to the Baltimore Ravens for one year in 2017, playing in just two games.

Escobar has not appeared in an NFL game since.

Needless to say, the Cowboys made a colossal error in judgment, and now, the Chiefs are reaping the benefits of it.

Of course, it’s unfair to play Monday morning quarterback every single time a team messes up a draft pick. It happens all the time. Heck, Kelce was taken in the third round, so plenty of clubs passed on him, and multiple times, at that.

Plus, Kelce may have never gotten the chance to flourish in Dallas, as Jason Witten was still a productive member of the Cowboys at the time.

In the end, things worked out pretty well for Travis Kelce.

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