How a video from his brother inspired Travis Kelce’s huge night in KC Chiefs’ OT win
Travis Kelce arrived in Los Angeles mired in the worst-two game stretch he had experienced in six years, when a member of the Chiefs staff showed him a video. Kelce watched a man on the iPhone screen talk about hope — about providing it for others through football but also about never losing it himself.
The speaker? A teary-eyed Jason Kelce, Travis’ older brother and an offensive lineman for the Eagles.
Some 2,500 miles away, as the Chiefs felt their grip on a first-place showdown with the Chargers loosening, Kelce thought back to the message he had heard 24 hours earlier.
“To see him pour that emotion out there, that’s all I was thinking about out there on the field,” Kelce said. “Don’t let doubt seep in.”
A message intended elsewhere found a recipient who needed it and when he needed it most.
His younger brother.
Travis Kelce followed his back-to-back duds with the night of his life, a night he ended with a walk-off touchdown in a 34-28 overtime victory against the Chargers.
He caught 10 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns. And if there was any doubt about whatever this 32-year-old tight end has left, he plastered white out across it as he weaved through a maze of defenders for the final 25 yards of the game-winner.
“For the old man Kelce, who everybody’s talking about losing a step and being off his game,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, without a question about the topic yet before him, “He looked pretty fast to me.”
It’s been a grind of late, though. The facts are the facts. Kelce had six catches for 54 yards over the last two wins. He hasn’t had fewer yards in back-to-back games since the final two games of 2015.
His coaches have held specific meetings to pry him loose. They’d contacted the league office, highlighting some clutching and grabbing that had gone unflagged.
On Thursday, they managed to isolate him one-on-one with defenders in the open field. You know, the precise type of routes of which Kelce has made a living for more than a half-decade. He crossed the 1,000-yard mark for the sixth straight season. No other tight end had reached four straight.
A mere footnote in his day.
Kelce absorbed a lead role in each of the final three drives. The Chiefs trailed by eight midway through the fourth. On 3rd-and-5, he caught a pass at midfield and raced the Chargers secondary all the way down to the 1. The Chiefs would tie the game.
They trailed once again when Patrick Mahomes marched the Chiefs 75 yards and found Kelce for a game-tying touchdown with just 1:03 to play.
Still, the best had not yet come. He caught the final pass at the 30-yard line, literally three defenders in a stance awaiting his next move surrounding him. He cut right, darted upfield, weaved back left and found a path to the end zone. You could argue six Chargers defenders had a shot at him.
They missed. All of them.
“His endurance down the stretch for an older player — he’s kind of our elder statesman; so I keep saying that but it’s not like he’s over the hill — but his acceleration after the catch, that was something that late in the game,” Reid said.
As the chaos of the celebration swirled around Kelce, Mahomes began searching for him. Earlier in the quarter, Kelce had passed along the words from his brother to his quarterback. Don’t lose hope.
As they greeted one another, Mahomes spoke first.
“I just said, ‘I love you, man,’” Mahomes said.
His coach had a few different words for him throughout the week. During practice, Kelce said, on days he’s feeling sore, Reid will “throw a jab” at him.
Feel like you’re 22 again, baby.
On a per-game basis, Kelce’s production has slipped from his historic 2020 season — even though he’s managed to top 1,000 yards yet again. He’s 32 now and acknowledges that sometimes he has to go about gaining yards in a bit of a different way than years past.
But on Thursday, this way — outrunning defenders who seem surprised by his speed — was the old-fashioned way.
“Instead of 32,” he said. “I was 22 tonight.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 1:48 AM.