Travis Kelce Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The Cincinnati Bengals needed the Kansas City Chiefs to defeat the Denver Broncos to secure their playoff spot. However, after the Chiefs rested their starters and suffered a blowout loss on Sunday, speculation arose that the Chiefs may have made a calculated decision to keep Cincinnati out of the playoffs, fearing a potential matchup. But Travis Kelce has made it clear that such claims are unfounded.

On the latest episode of his “New Heights” podcast with his brother, Jason Kelce, Travis Kelce addressed the notion that he and the Chiefs were afraid of facing the Bengals in no uncertain terms.

“I ain’t scared of [freaking] nobody,” Kelce said on the podcast. “I wanted them in the [freaking] playoffs. I want to slay every dragon one by one, like Mortal Kombat. I don’t even want this to be like we play the lowest seed. Just give me the best teams.”

Over the past five years, only two teams have managed to eliminate the Chiefs in the postseason: the Cincinnati Bengals and Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This history has contributed to a budding rivalry between the Bengals and Chiefs, fueled by the rise of Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow as two of the NFL’s most dominant quarterbacks.

Kelce’s competitive spirit shows he’s more than willing to take on the Bengals—or any other team—at any time.

“I’ll play them at the Walmart parking lot,” Kelce said. “I don’t give a [expletive]. We can have our own game in the offseason where we really duke it out.”

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Kelce also expressed his disappointment that the Bengals missed the playoffs, believing their presence would have elevated the competition.

“Listen, I love competing against the greatest,” Kelce said. “The Bengals were a fun [freaking] team to watch there toward the end of the season, and it’s a shame they didn’t make it in the playoffs because they would have made the playoffs that much [freaking] crazier and that much more fun.”

Needless to say, these comments led to a lot of reactions from fans.

“They didn’t try to keep the Bengals out of the playoffs – they just didn’t try to win the game and it was a bad look. That’s the issue,” one fan wrote on X.

“Travis talks tough but he had no power there. He might not have been afraid but Andy and the rest of the coaches/front office definitely were,” someone else wrote.

“Sounds rather defensive,” another fan wrote.

“So their borderline starters and backups are so bad that they lost 38-0 to a division rival? Really?” someone else said.

“Cincinnati is 0-3 against Kansas City since they beat us in the AFC championship game which was 4 years ago btw and in half that time they missed the playoffs twice now. If the PATRIOTS weren’t scared of them in week 1 why would we be scared of them now,” another person added.

“It’s pretty ridiculous to expect an already clinched #1 seed team to go all in for a meaningless win in that situation. That being said, Travis knows they’re about to get rolled by whoever in the division round regardless,” someone else said.

“’m tired of that narrative like the chiefs didn’t beat the bengals last time they met in the playoffs, chiefs are 3x super bowl champions in 5 calendar years, they weren’t worried about a 9-8 team,” another person wrote.

The Chiefs claimed the No. 1 seed in the AFC and earned a first-round bye in the playoffs. But they will now face a gauntlet of the league’s toughest opponents in their pursuit of a third straight Super Bowl title. But it sounds like Kelce wouldn’t have it any other way.