Chiefs will visit White House on Monday; Travis Kelce may need to be searched

The Kansas City Chiefs are visiting the White House on Monday. It’s an honor they earned by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII in February.

While it was the team’s third Super Bowl victory, this will mark the first time the Chiefs will get to meet the President. White House visits with championship teams weren’t really a “thing” when Kansas City won Super Bowl IV against the Minnesota Vikings after the 1969 season — although quarterback Len Dawson did get a congratulatory phone call from then-president Richard Nixon in the locker room after the game. No championship teams visited the White House during the coronavirus pandemic, which was just beginning to attract notice when Kansas City won Super Bowl LIV against the San Francisco 49ers following the 2019 season.

So this will be the first time for the Chiefs — and tight end Travis Kelce is excited.

“It is gonna be a fun adventure with the team,” he told his brother Jason Kelce — a center for the Eagles — during their “New Heights” podcast last week. “The entire team is going. I heard the dress code is business attire. I’m not sure if I have any business-type clothes, but I might be able to wander [in] and grab something — you know what I’m saying? Might be able to throw [on] a sport coat and some slacks.”

Travis then had a little fun, pretending that he didn’t actually know that the team would get the opportunity to meet the President.

“I think we get to shake hands with everybody in the building,” he deadpanned. “We just go one-by-one and we just kind of shake hands; we go into every room and we shake all the hands.”

Travis continued in this vein when Jason asked Travis what he wanted to see most during his visit.

“I wanna see ... I wanna see the hidden oval office,” he said conspiratorially.

That got Jason going.

“Travis lifting rugs up,” he laughed. “Looking behind paintings. ’Sir, we’ve told you: please do not touch anything on the walls — for the last time.’ Spraying lemon juice on the paintings, looking for hidden messages ...”

This reference to Nicholas Cage in the “National Treasure” movies got both of them laughing. Travis said that he’d bring the juice in one of the little plastic lemons you can buy at liquor stores. So Jason had a message for the Secret Service.

“Please make sure you frisk Travis for any lemon juice,” he announced with fake gravity. “And keep your eye on him wherever he’s at — especially [in] the Oval Office.”

On a more serious note, Travis noted that he had a problem to solve before the team’s Washington trip.

“They said that I needed an ID to go in,” he revealed. “I’m not gonna lie, man. My ID has been expired for like three years. Gotta get a new ID by Monday.”

We have to mention here that during the last two episodes of the Arrowhead Pride “Editors’ Show,” Pete Sweeney and I have joked about Chiefs players missing voluntary OTA practices because they had to stand in line at the license bureau. Travis missed last Thursday’s session, so the joke might have been closer to the truth than we realized. Furthermore, bitter experience allows me to report that if his license was really expired for that long, the Missouri Department of Revenue would require him to take a driving test for a new one.

“What do they need your ID for?” asked Jason. “I feel like the Chiefs are probably on top of knowing who’s on the team.”

“I kind of want to get a fake ID now,” joked Travis, “and just see if they catch me.”

“Dude, if you fake ID the White House, that would be epic,” laughed Jason. “[But it’s] probably not gonna work now that everybody knows you might be thinking about it.”

Here at Arrowhead Pride, we’re always happy to do our part.