It was in private, back in April 2013, when Andy Reid had the ear of Travis Kelce and gave the tight end a piece of his mind. It was in front of the world, almost 11 years later, that Kelce gave the head coach his own, fierce talking to.
Few images from the first Super Bowl in Sin City will endure like the sight of Kelce bumping into Reid and screaming into his coach’s face.
Never mind that the Kansas City Chiefs went on to secure back-to-back championships. Whether or not it was Patrick Mahomes orchestrating (yet) another piece of history.
That first-half clash was caught on camera and flooded social media. The incident was also repeated over and over during the post-match debriefing.
Who could have blamed Reid if he had turned back the clock to the 2013 NFL draft when he picked up the phone and called the younger Kelce brother. In Las Vegas, the coach could have been forgiven for thinking: maybe I was right all along.
Travis Kelce screamed at Chiefs coach Andy Reid during the Super Bowl in Las Vegas
But over the past decade, the tight end and head coach have formed a father-son-like bond
After all, the story goes that Reid — who had already drafted Jason Kelce to the Eagles in 2011 and was now considering bringing Travis to Kansas City — chastised the tight end over his behavior and apparent instability.
As Kelce later recalled, Reid almost said, ‘You want to screw this up? I need a mature guy. I don’t need a guy who comes in and is silly’.
More than a decade later, Kelce accepted that he had crossed a line in Las Vegas. But Reid pulled out of the meltdown. A ‘cheap shot’, he jokingly called it. “I didn’t see him coming or I would have ripped him in the forearm.”
It was a master class in how to defuse a boozy PR disaster. But also another insight into the special relationship that has helped propel two brothers and a family towards superstar status.
Jason only worked with Reid for a couple of seasons, yet he says the coach and his family ‘played such an incredible part in me and my brother being able to play at this level’. Travis credits ‘Big Red’ with pulling him on to the straight and narrow.
Sometimes it only takes a look before his message lands; their bond goes beyond the professional. The 65-year-old coach considers himself part of the Kelce family. Jason agrees. As for Travis? “He’s like one of my kids,” Reid has said. ‘There is nobody I get better than I get him.’
Reid had previously worked with Kelce’s older brother Jason (left) on the Philadelphia Eagles
‘He’s like one of my kids,’ Reid has said of Travis, ‘there’s no one I get better than I get him’
“For Travis, Coach Reid has almost been like that uncle that you have that you listen to and get advice from,” quarterback Mahomes told ESPN. He makes Travis a great football player, but I think he’s a better person. He has a good sense of getting on Travis when he needs that motivation, but at the same time he lets Travis be who he is.’
Jason is a different character, but Reid brought both into the NFL. He brought them from Cincinnati – hardly a football powerhouse back then. Neither had received much hype. Neither was taken before the third round of the draft.
And still? Jason recently retired a Super Bowl winner and a future Hall of Famer. Travis – a three-time champion under ‘Big Red’ – also threatened to walk away. His reasoning?
‘I love Coach Reid, Coach Reid knows how much I love playing for him, how much I love being a product of his coaching career. I don’t play for anyone but Big Red. If he quits this year, I’m out with him.’
Fortunately for the Chiefs, neither coach nor tight end is completely gone yet. The ties that bind this football family continue to strengthen.
The veteran head coach selected the center with the 191st overall pick in the 2011 draft
Earlier this month, Jason Kelce called for an incredible career with the Eagles
Jason took a trip down memory lane during his 41-minute retirement speech earlier this month.
‘When I look back on the road, I’m sure there are things I will forget. But those are some of the things I’m sure I don’t want,’ he said.
‘I’ll never forget the call I got from Andy Reid on draft day and my dad (red) rushing into the room with tears streaming down his face because his son’s dreams had just come true… and I won’t forget two years later and the same man (Reid) and my brother (Travis) got a call and he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs.
‘This time tears streamed down both my father’s and (my) face as my brother had just realized his own.’
The water utility resumed – and barely relented – during Kelce’s retirement announcement. The reality, of course, is that the early days were marked by turbulence. There were more than tears of joy.
Especially when Travis’ college career hit the rocks in Cincinnati. He was kicked off the team and lost his scholarship after testing positive for marijuana. Only thanks to Jason – then a teammate – was the younger brother steered back on the path to the NFL.
Travis Kelce was kicked from the University of Cincinnati team where Jason was a teammate
Reid watched Kelce play these days. The tight end reportedly addressed the veteran coach as ‘big guy.’
“Deep down, I’m like, ‘If I get my hands on that son, I’m going to rip his heart out,'” Reid once recalled.
Only thanks to Jason was Reid convinced that there was more to Travis than his bravado. Only thanks to Jason did Reid finish the phone call in 2013 that convinced Travis that it was worth the trouble.
It is said that after chastising Travis, Reid told him to take on his brother. “Jason convinced me he was going to be fine,” the coach recalled. “And if he wasn’t, he’d beat him up.”
The elder Kelce sensed that Reid, at least in part, held him responsible for the fate of his game.
‘They knew what type of player they were getting. Because of the inside scoop, I think with me, they were able to kind of get over some of the concerns with him,’ he told ESPN.
Kelce celebrates third Super Bowl win under ‘Big Red’ with girlfriend Taylor Swift
From there, through one-on-one meetings and by ‘challenging’ him ‘every single day’, the trainer helped tease bad habits out of Travis.
“I was late for meetings, hung out too much during the week, didn’t necessarily concentrate,” Kelce once revealed.
‘Now football is the only place in my life where I’m really detailed, really professional… I’m dialed in. I can lock in, really compartmentalize. It’s because of Coach Reid.’
Even last season, their 11th together, there were still kinks to iron out. Kelce threw a tantrum on the sideline in the Chiefs’ Christmas Day loss to the Raiders. The tight end struggled for motivation at times and had to battle the distractions that come with life as Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. By the postseason, however, Reid had guided him out of a slump.
During that 2013 call, it is said, Kelce tried to reassure Reid by promising to work toward becoming the coach’s best tight end ever.
More than a decade later, that promise has been fulfilled. Thanks to the bond formed between two brothers and a father figure who knows what makes them tick. Even after their family expands to include a pop sensation. Even after they scream in his face.