It’s Travis Kelce‘s world, we’re just living in it. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end who has parlayed his on-field NFL prowess into an ever-expanding off-field portfolio has achieved one of his most sought-after extracurricular gigs.
On Tuesday night’s (August 20) Tonight Show, Adam Sandler confirmed that Kelce will appear in the upcoming Happy Gilmore 2 sequel. “Travis has… he mentioned it, so we have a nice something for Travis,” Sandler said of the gig that Kelce publicly pined over earlier this year. “He’s gonna come by. He’s a very nice guy. You guys would love him in real life. What a big, handsome guy. Funny and cool as hell. He’s a stud and he’s so funny.”
Though Sandler didn’t reveal any details about Kelce’s role in the anticipated follow-up to the 1996 golf comedy, the Kelce reveal is a bit of wish fulfillment for the Super Bowl champ. He seemed to manifest the cameo in May on his New Heights podcast with brother retired NFL great Jason Kelce, when Travis said he was a “huge fan of the Sandman” and would do “anything” to get a role in the film.
“I didn’t even know there was a job opening on Happy Gilmore 2. I’ll be a f–king extra… anything to get around Happy Gilmore, an Adam Sandler film or set — count me in,” Travis said at the time. Jason quickly poured cold water on the idea, though, noting that there was “really no evidence to support” the conspiracy theory that his brother might make it into the film after a Reddit user noted that Kelce was wearing a Happy Gilmore baseball hat on the podcast shortly after the sequel was announced.
“[No evidence] other than the movie’s getting made and I’m looking for movie deals,” Travis teased at the time. “Who knows? Theories can come true. Theories can be true and people just don’t know about it. I might even be in the talking and nobody knows about it, but I could also not be in the talking. I’ll do anything in the movie. I’ll be part of it any way I possibly can.” Travis speculated that he could be the “jackass” crowd heckler from the original, or, perhaps given hs upcoming game show gig, he could take over the Bob Barker role.
Kelce has been beefing up his TV and film resumé this year, with upcoming appearances in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming FX horror series, Grotesquerie, as well as a gig hosting the Amazon Prime game show reboot Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? and a just-announced potential first lead role in the action-comedy Loose Cannons.
Sandler told Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon that the movie will start shooting in New Jersey in “a couple of weeks.” Kelce, of course, will likely be back on the field for the final Chiefs pre-season game against the Chicago Bears on Thursday night (August 22) before kicking off the regular season on Sept. 5 against the Baltimore Ravens.
When he does take the field, it will be with his new longer hairstyle, which Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes recently said is thanks to girlfriend Taylor Swift’s influence. “I’ve been trying to get him to grow his hair out and all of a sudden Taylor gets him to do it,” Mahomes said during a recent interview on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
Watch Sandler on the Tonight Show below.