Through the first five seasons of his career, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was a bit of a hothead. During games, he often received penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct and taunting — and made mistakes that could easily be attributed to a lack of focus and preparation. He was assessed fines for his behavior both on and off the field — and once in 2016, was even ejected from a game.
Travis Kelce is a reliable veteran leader for the #Chiefs
— Playoff Ron (@Ron_Kopp) October 2, 2019
He’s come a long way in three years pic.twitter.com/Ft4IkLcruN
Our Ron Kopp recalled all of these incidents last season, noting that Kelce had transformed himself into a reliable team leader.
Through it all, Kelce has still been a very productive player. But after the 2019 season — during which it became more and more clear that he had become one of the team’s most important leaders — his popularity has soared even more. This year, as the team’s nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, he received over a million votes from fans in the online vote for the award.
Hey, #ChiefsKingdom! @tkelce wanted to say thanks for all the votes for this year’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Charity Challenge! @Nationwide pic.twitter.com/XyCc5cQo3R
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 23, 2021
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kelce was properly humbled by fans’ respect.
“The Kingdom is undefeated when it comes to getting support,” he said. “As a player, what else can you ask for? The million votes? It’s a humbling experience going through it all — to even be honored in the Walter Payton Man of the Year, to be a nominee. Then on top of that, to have that much support coming from this fan base and this city, knowing that all the donations and everything are going right back to this city — because they deserve it.”
It’s hard to even imagine the 2014 or 2015 version of Travis Kelce even being in the position to say such a thing — much less actually say it. But we’ve now become accustomed to Kelce 2.0 — the player who sets all-time NFL records and can give sage advice to rookies appearing in their first NFL postseason.
“First thing is to try not make it any bigger than a regular football game,” he said he advises the team’s young players. “The emotions and the tension — everything like that — can make a guy act uncharacteristically on the field. So just try to be yourself — try take it as much of a regular game-day experience for yourself going into it. And then... know we belong, man.”
Kelce said this counsel comes from his own experience.
“There were games — early on in my career during the postseason — where I didn’t have the confidence that we belonged,” he recalled. “And right now — over the past few years — we’ve built this team to have a certain type of culture of confidence, knowing that we’re going to put in the work throughout the week to be ready [on] game day. All we have to do is be ourselves when we go out there.”
Kelce hesitated to call the culture “strictly business” because he sees it as a “brotherhood and a family” — one that sticks together through everything. He said it starts at the top of the organization.
“I think a lot of who we are is based off the leadership we have in this building. It starts with coach Andy Reid and Clark Hunt. It trickles to [defensive coordinator] Steve Spagnuolo and [offensive coordinator] coach Eric Bieniemy — guys that hold us accountable on all aspects and challenge the egos in this locker room to become better men and better football players.”
But he also holds himself and his teammates to that same standard of accountability. Asked about the media buzz surrounding the streak of late-season games that the Chiefs won by a touchdown or less, he was fully prepared to accept responsibility for them.
“I don’t think we put our best game out there,” he said flatly. “Obviously, those ‘red flags’ — or those kind of, I don’t know, opinions — are thrown out there for a reason. And it’s on us to make sure that we go out there and play our best. Obviously, you don’t want a tight game. You want to put up 50 on everybody — but at the same time, you’ve got to respect the team that you’re going against.
“I think right now, we’ve gradually started to become a better team altogether — where we play off of each other better. [On] offense, defense and special teams, everything’s starting to come together like we know how [we can] play. A lot of that has to do with the coaching that we have — and the leadership that we have in this building; it’s second to nobody.
“I’m excited to get out there and prove ourselves right — and show everybody that we are who we are.”
That’s the kind of thing you hear from a player who can take you to a championship — and then another one.