Ahead of Sunday afternoon’s AFC Championship game, Kansas City Chiefs stars Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes got into a little bit of an altercation with Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker when Tucker was warming up on the Chiefs’ side of the field that culminated in Kelce throwing Tucker’s helmet and kicking tee out of the way. And Kelce explained his side of the incident during a recent episode of his “New Heights” podcast.
In the podcast episode, Travis Kelce explained that it is common for specialists like kickers and punters to warm up on both sides of the field given the wind and the fact that they will be kicking on both sides of the field, but he also said that it’s an “unwritten rule” for those players to acknowledge the other team and “kinda stay out of their way.”
As Kelce points out, that is not what Tucker did.
“If you wanna be a [freaking] dick about it, you keep your helmet, and your football, and your [freaking] kicking tee right where the quarterbacks are warming up,” Kelce said. “If you’re not going to pick that up, I’ll happily move that for you.”
Kelce acknowledged that Tucker was joking around and using a bit of gamesmanship, but he and Mahomes simply were not in the mood to deal with it.
“Justin came out and said it was more of a joking gesture and kind of a fun competitive thing, and I get it. He was kind of winking at me and being a dick about it, trying to get under the skin,” Kelce said. “I get it. But me and Pat, we had been having the same mentality for this game all week long.
“We just weren’t in a joking mood,” Kelce said. “So Justin, sorry if we took it to a level that you didn’t think it would get to, but if you’re going to be a dick, I promise you I can one-up you every time.”
