Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid told reporters not to “make too much” of the sideline spat between him and star tight end Travis Kelce during the second quarter of the team’s 22-9 win over the New York Giants on “Sunday Night Football.”
NBC’s cameras caught the two men yelling at each other, with Reid at one point appearing to intentionally give Kelce’s shoulder a hard bump with his own shoulder. The Chiefs were up 6-0 at the time, but the offense had just failed to capitalize on a Giants turnover.
Going into halftime, as the confrontation with Kelce played on viewers’ screens, NBC’s Melissa Stark asked Reid what his message was to the team after seeing “a lot of frustration and emotion from your key players, star players on the sideline.”
“That’s OK, we need some juice,” said Reid, whose team had entered the game 0-2. “So that’s good.”
During his postgame news conference, Reid was asked what he had been trying to get across to Kelce during the exchange.
“I love Travis’ passion, and so I’m OK with that. We didn’t have enough of it,” Reid said. “That second quarter wasn’t where we needed to be. So within reason, you know, he knows — he knows when to back off the pedal, and knows when to push it too. So that’s part I love about him, the guy’s all in. Just sometimes I have to be the policeman.”
Reid added: “Listen, he’s an emotional guy. He’s Irish.”
Asked if the exchange was him telling Kelce to back off a bit, Reid answered: “Don’t make too much of it. He’s a passionate guy, and I love that part. So I’ve been through a lot of things with him, so that’s all part of it. I love that he loves to play the game. That’s what I love. And it’s an emotional game. So I’ll take it.”
Kelce wasn’t made available to speak to reporters after the game.
It’s not the first time the two men made contact during a sideline dispute. Early in the second quarter of Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 12, 2024, Kelce was seen yelling in his coach’s face, grabbing his arm and bumping into him, which appeared to cause Reid to stumble a bit.
After the Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime win in that game, Reid brushed off the incident, telling CBS that Kelce had hugged him and apologized after the incident.
“There’s nobody that I get better than I get him,” said Reid, who was 65 at the time. “He’s a competitive kid and he loves to play.”
Days later, on the “New Heights” podcast, Kelce expressed regret.
“It’s definitely unacceptable,” he said, “and I immediately wished I could take it back.”
On the same podcast, Kelce said: “Unfortunately, sometimes my passion comes out where it looks like it’s negativity, but I’m grateful that [Reid] knows that it’s all because I wanna win this thing with him more than anything.”
The Chiefs hadn’t started 0-2 since 2014, which was Kelce’s first year as a starter and Reid’s second as the team’s coach. The team has since played in five Super Bowls and won three.
This season is off to a slow start also for Kelce, a 10-time Pro Bowl selection. He has 10 catches in 17 targets for 134 yards and one touchdown. During the Chiefs’ 20-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2, a pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes bounced out of Kelce’s arms at the goal line and resulted in a game-changing interception by the Eagles’ Patrick Mukuba.
Also during the Philadelphia game, Kelce appeared to point to his crotch as part of a crude gesture aimed toward the opposing sideline after making a 23-yard reception. He was later fined $14,491 by the NFL for unsportsmanlike conduct.
