Why Chiefs superstars Patrick Mahomes & Travis Kelce are on same page in NFL lore
Any which way you might analyze it, the perpetual connection between Chiefs’ superstars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce is the stuff of legend.
It’s certainly certified in tangible, rational form: As of last Sunday in Buffalo, it features the most postseason touchdown passes/receptions (16) between two players in NFL history, nicely fitting for a pair that has combined to create three of the five most prolific regular seasons (in terms of yardage) among tight ends in NFL history.
Despite three dropped passes in the absurd minus-30 wind chill against Miami, Kelce seems revitalized by sitting out the regular-season finale and has 12 catches for 146 yards this postseason with the two TDs against Buffalo. And their profile will be all the more enhanced by the AFC Championship Game on Sunday in Baltimore if the Chiefs should prevail and/or Kelce secures six more catches to tie Jerry Rice for the most playoff receptions in the annals of the game with 151.
But the most compelling part about all the cold numbers remains the unique bond that animates the dynamic between two-Pro Football Hall of Fame bound players whose alignment might merit a display of its own in Canton.
If it sounds exaggerated to call it some form of phenomenon, even Chiefs’ coach Andy Reid — distinctly not prone to such fanciful notions — suggested it on Wednesday.
“They’ve got a special chemistry,” he began.
But Reid’s real point was still in the making. After harkening to having worked with the likes of Brett Favre and Sterling Sharpe in Green Bay and Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens (as well as Desean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin) in Philadelphia, Reid further considered Mahomes and Kelce.
“It’s hard to explain why and how these guys connect like that,” he said. “But they do. They both have a great feel for the game, and they have a great feel for what the other one sees and is going to do. In a very short time frame.”
While Reid meant within the span of a single play, his words sidetracked me into the looming matter of how much longer a time frame they’ll have together after a regular season in which Kelce turned 34.
We’ll explore this more extensively soon, but the CliffsNotes version goes like this:
Albeit in two fewer games than the 17 he played in 2022, Kelce’s production was diminished (110 catches to 93, 1,338 yards to 984, 12 touchdowns to five). In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in November, Kelce said he thinks about retirement “more than anyone could ever imagine.”
Meanwhile, brother Jason at least contemplating retirement makes for more speculation Travis would consider leaving the game at the same time — even as his relationship with Taylor Swift and thoughts of life after the game seem to be an increasing part of his life.
But less than two weeks ago in one of his increasingly rare interviews with local media, Kelce said, “I have no reason to stop playing football. I love it. We still have success. … I just like the challenge that it gives me every single day to try and be at my best. I have no desire to stop any time soon.”
While he didn’t say it directly, no doubt a key appeal of playing on would be Mahomes — with whom he enjoys a deep off-field friendship. During a June Zoom call before the made-for-TV golf event, “The Match,” Mahomes said “I feel like his family is part of my family now, and I feel like the same goes for him.” And that was long before the apparently burgeoning friendship between Swift and Brittany Mahomes.
The operative part of all that for the Chiefs is in this context: As close as they’ve become, Kelce said that day, he believed he could practically enter into Mahomes’ brain and vice versa.
If that seems preposterous or like sci-fi material, well, you really haven’t been watching the Chiefs enough.
While there must be dozens of examples we’ve never quite realized or heard expanded on, enough of the wonders between them have been discerned and documented to validate the reality. It’s more mystical than merely mythical — something that feels supernatural instead of a fiction that gets retold over time.
Two tales illustrate the fascinating mind-meld as well or better than any. So much so that they bear retelling in any attempt to account for how this bond is its own living, breathing entity.
Consider the “Do it, Kels!” episode: the ad-libbed call Mahomes made at the line of scrimmage late in the January 2022 postseason victory over Buffalo seconds after Kelce pointed out a possible Bills vulnerability between plays.
Never mind the actual initial call: “It was kind of a thing where he wasn’t necessarily supposed to do that,” Mahomes later said, smiling, about the pass he still necessarily knew where to throw to set up the game-tying field goal in the 42-36 overtime win.
As they spoke of a key play moments before, Kelce said, “I don’t understand how you know what I’m doing.”
To which Mahomes said, “I knew you were going to turn.”
But .... even Kelce didn’t seem to know how Mahomes knew that.
“There is nothing telling you I was going to do that,” he said, “and the ball was in the air before I did it.”
Well, of course.
“That’s what I wanted you to do,” Mahomes said.
It’s all uncanny, really, like some force of nature.
One that safety Justin Reid has long appreciated but certainly enjoys more now as a Chief than he did playing against them when he was with the Texans.
“Those guys are both so cerebral and smart … and their chemistry is at a level where they’re able to create their own routes,” he said Wednesday. “So it’s almost impossible to defend.
“You’re planning on what you see on tape, and you get to the game and you see the same formation. And (Kelce) does something different based off of what he sees, and they’re on the same page to get the ball to each other.”
A page of its own in NFL history … with at least one more entry to add to it.