Travis Kelce says Chiefs will be ready to take every opponent’s best shot next season
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce joined ESPN’s “First Take” on Thursday, and talked about his brother (Eagles center Jason Kelce) and Tom Brady leaving for the Buccaneers.
Kelce was asked about the Chiefs being the “hunted team” as defending Super Bowl champions. He said having No. 15 at quarterback has made the Chiefs a team to beat.
“To be honest, last year we knew we were getting everybody’s best shot,” Kelce said. “Being that we do have Patrick Mahomes, the MVP of the league two years ago and this past year MVP of the Super Bowl. I mean the guy’s taken the league by storm and can win any football game at any point in time, or however much time is left on the clock. ...
“Coach (Andy) Reid does an unbelievable job of setting us up week in, week out, knowing that we are going to get our opponent’s best shot because they feel like they have to bring that type of energy, that type of talent, that type of mentality to the game when they come and play the Kansas City Chiefs. So knowing that, yeah, it makes every single game a little bit more intense, a little bit more meaningful. All it really does is build up the accountability throughout the team, throughout the players to make sure they’re doing what we’ve got to do throughout the week.”
Max Kellerman wanted Kelce’s thoughts on which AFC team he thinks poses the biggest threat to Chiefs. Kelce instead answered about the entire NFL.
“Obviously we haven’t seen the draft, we haven’t seen a full offseason of free agency, so you don’t know who’s going to end up where,” Kelce said.
“But I honestly think it’ll be a rematch of Super Bowl LIV. I think the San Francisco 49ers are one heck of a team. They’re very, very well-coached, very disciplined in who they are and obviously they’re very talented in who they are.”
The Chiefs will enter the 2020 season as the team to beat, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, no one knows for certain if games will be played.
There’s been speculation about teams facing off in empty stadiums, and Kelce was asked if that would affect his game.
“I haven’t thought about it much at all,” Kelce said. “But I like to think of it as I have passion more than I have emotion for the game because emotion comes and goes. It goes up and down like like a roller coaster. Passion sits in your heart and it’s within you. I started playing this game in the backyard, I started playing this game in middle school and going to go practice without any fans, without any sounds.
“Nowadays practice is built up with music and sometimes coaches put crowd noises in the background to try and simulate a game. But at the same time, I still enjoy playing this game in the backyard. Going out and just playing catch or getting the guys together playing a sandlot game. That’s just who I’ve always been so I don’t think it’ll affect me.
“At the same time, it is going to be very awkward playing in a stadium with nobody in it. I can’t I can’t even imagine doing that, and being in uniform and playing a real game. I can’t even fathom it, really.”
Here is the clip:
