Travis Kelce says he deserved to be punched fo Super Bowl outburst at Reid
Travis Kelce says his confrontation with Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid during Sunday’s Super Bowl was “absolutely unacceptable.”
Kelce rushed into Reid after being taken out of the game in the first half as the Chiefs offense failed to make any headway against the San Francisco 49ers. The confrontation caused the 65-year-old Reid to stumble as the tight end yelled at him. Kelce was criticized for the incident and initially joked, “I just told (Reid) how much I love him.”
But on Wednesday’s edition of the New Heights podcast that he co-hosts with his brother Jason, Kelce was contrite.
“I can’t get that to the point where I bump into Coach and throw him off balance and stuff like that. When he tripped, I thought, ‘Oh shit’ in my head.”
Reid downplayed the incident after the game, which the Chiefs won in overtime to secure their third title in five seasons.
“He was emotional today,” Reid said. ‘I have five children and I know how that goes. What I like is that he likes to play the game and he wants to help his team win.”
Kelce has played for Reid his entire professional career and said he yelled at his coach after becoming frustrated with his team’s performance.
“It just came at a time when we weren’t playing very well. I wasn’t playing very well and we had to get some things going,” he said. “Sometimes those emotions escape me, man. That’s been the fight of my career, but for everyone else, I don’t care what anyone else says. I was talking to Coach Reid about it today and we kind of chuckled about it. I couldn’t be more proud to be his product on the field, and I couldn’t be more proud of where we’ve come as a team since I came here in 2013.”
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The 34-year-old added that Reid would have been within his right to react with anger.
“I deserve it. If he had given me a cold slap in the face right there, I would have just eaten it. I would have been like, ‘Let’s go,'” he said.
Kelce was closely watched when he came into the game: his relationship with Taylor Swift has brought him worldwide fame. He also improved his play after the blowout, finishing as the Chiefs’ leader in receiving yards with 93.