Andy Reid laughs off Travis Kelce’s Super Bowl bump: ‘He caught me off-balance’

The Kansas City Chiefs were able to win their third Super Bowl in five years on Sunday, but their 25-22 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers wasn’t exactly pretty. Sometimes, things were downright hostile.

Early in the second quarter, Travis Kelce aggressively bumped an unaware Andy Reid, yelling at the Chiefs head coach after Isiah Pacheco fumbled in the red zone. Following the win, though, both sides played down any conflict between the two, embracing Kelce’s competitive desire as Kansas City came back from a 10-0 deficit to win.

“He keeps me young. He tested that hip out,” Reid said while laughing on CBS’ post-game show, “He caught me off-balance — normally, I’d give him a little bit, but I didn’t have any feet under me.”

Reid continued to joke about the situation, telling ESPN that “he didn’t know I was going to go that far, so he came over and gave me a hug. He said, ‘Sorry about that.'” Additionally, Reid said that there’s “nobody I get better than I get him, he’s a competitive kid and he loves to play.”

“He caught me off balance,” Reid added when he spoke with reporters. “I wasn’t watching. He was really coming over [and saying], ‘Just put me in, I’ll score. I’ll score.’ So, that’s really what it was. I love that. It’s not the first time. I appreciate him.

“The part I love is he loves to play the game, and he wants to help his team win. It’s not a selfish thing. That’s not what it is. I understand that. As much as he bumps into me, I get after him and we understand that. He just caught me off balance.”

Kelce also poked fun at the situation. He initially told ESPN that he was “going to keep it between us unless my mic’d up tells the world, but I was just telling him how much I love him.”

“I didn’t care about my catches,” Kelce later told reporters. “I just wanted to … I wanted the score to be different. Coach has asked us to speak our minds and I just wanted to let him know how much passion I had for this team.

“He’s one of the best leaders of men I’ve ever seen in my life. And he’s helped me a lot with that, with channeling that emotion, with channeling that passion. I owe my entire career to that guy and being able to kind of control how emotional I get and just love him.”

Kelce only had one reception for a yard at the moment of Pacheco’s fumble on Sunday. But his play progressed as the game went along, finishing with a game-high nine receptions for 93 yards. He played particularly well in the fourth quarter and overtime of Super Bowl LVIII, recording five receptions for 67 yards in the final two frames. His final catch was the penultimate play of the game, setting up the Chiefs at the 49ers’ 3-yard line before Patrick Mahomes threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman. 

The win gave the Chiefs their third Super Bowl title in five seasons, with the Mahomes-Kelce-Reid trio serving as the catalyst for the Lombardi Trophies. With Sunday’s win, the Chiefs were also the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls in nearly two full decades, with the New England Patriots being the last team to do it in 2003-04.

Kelce was certainly aware of the history the Chiefs made when he spoke with reporters.

“I know this is one of the greatest teams of all time, to go back-to-back,” Kelce said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I’ve been able to go through three times now, and it gets sweeter and sweeter every time. You can call us a dynasty. You can call us whatever you want. I know what we’ve got is something more special than really what you’ve seen in the NFL.”

Once the celebration ends, the Chiefs will look to make even more history as they attempt to become the first team to ever win three Super Bowls in a row. Reid, who turns 66 in March, and Kelce, 34, both plan on being there when their quest to make history at the start of the 2024 season begins.

“I haven’t had time to think about it, but yeah,” Reid said, confirming he’d return. “I’m mad at [Bill] Belichick and Pete [Carroll] because now I get asked all of those questions.”

“The goal is always to get three [in a row],” Kelce added. “But we couldn’t get here without getting to two and having that target on our back all year. I love these guys right here. The men that we just won this thing with? Family forever, baby. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys. And how about it? We get a chance to do it three times in a row.”

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