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Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid praised Travis Kelce’s “passion” after the pair were involved in an exchange on the sidelines for a second straight week.
Reid bumped his tight end’s shoulder as they jawed with each other in the second quarter of the Chiefs’ 22-9 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday night. Although the Chiefs picked up their first victory of the season, their offense once again looked sluggish in the first-half against a poor Giants team. Kelce finished the game with four receptions for 26 yards.
Kelce was not in the locker room when reporters were free to ask questions to players so he did not comment on the matter. But Reid said he was not worried about the incident.
“I love Travis’s passion, man,” said Reid, who has won three Super Bowls alongside Kelce at the Chiefs. “I’m OK with that. We didn’t have enough of it in the second quarter. It wasn’t where we needed it to be, so, within reason, he knows when to back off the pedal and knows when to push it too. That’s the part I love about him. The guy is all-in. Sometimes, I have to be the policeman. He’s an emotional guy.”
The Chiefs lost their opening two games of the season, a notable downturn for a team who have won their division every year since 2016. Last week in their loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, who also beat them in last season’s Super Bowl, Kelce yelled at Reid and threw his helmet to the ground in the second quarter.
Kelce, one of the greatest tight ends of all time, will turn 36 this season and looks to be past his peak at an age when most NFL players have long since retired. However, he looked cheerful as he left the field on Sunday night, and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes insisted Kelce and Reid have a good relationship.
“He’s a guy that loves it,” Mahomes said after the game. “That’s what’s made him so great. I know [Reid and Kelce] love each other. That’s what you want out of the greats.”
Kelce and Reid were involved in a similar incident during the Super Bowl in February 2024. Kelce barged into Reid after being taken out of the game in the first-half as the Chiefs’ offense failed to make headway against the San Francisco 49ers, whom they went on to beat. The confrontation caused Reid to stumble and Kelce later admitted his behavior was out of line.
“I can’t get that fired up to the point where bumping Coach and it’s getting him off balance and stuff,” he said. “When he stumbled, I was like: ‘Aw, shit’ in my head … If he would have cold cocked me in the face right there, I would have just ate it.”
