Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce admitted to letting his emotions get the best of him during Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup against the San Francisco 49ers.
Kelce made headlines when he came off the field and approached head coach Andy Reid, body-checking him and screaming in his face — but on Wednesday’s episode of the “New Heights” podcast with his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, he admitted to “crossing a line.”
“I can’t get that fired up to the point where I’m bumping coach, and it’s getting him off balance and stuff,” Kelce said, adding that even in the moment he had realized immediately that he had gone too far.
“When he stumbled I was like, ‘Oh, s***,’ in my head,” Kelce admitted.
He went on to say that despite outward appearances on the field, he never doubted that Reid knew how much he loved playing for Kansas City and for Reid as a coach.
“I’m not playing for anybody else but Big Red … and I got a certain relationship with him. He’s checked me a few times, and I just wanted to let him know that I wanted this thing, and he can put it on me. I got him.”
“We had to get some s*** going. Sometimes those emotions just get away from me, man. That’s been the battle of my career,” Kelce admitted.
Critics slammed Kelce after video of the confrontation went viral, claiming that it showed the tight end being disrespectful and abusive towards Reid.
Travis Kelce looked less than enthused pic.twitter.com/yncKhjtNl4
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 12, 2024
“Inexcusable … never at any level do u treat a coach this way!!” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade commented.
Andy Becht, head coach of the XFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks, made it clear that such actions would never be tolerated in his league.
“@XFLBattlehawks players try me on the sidelines and see what happens,” he dared them.