Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce is taking aim at those attacking the Chiefs for their slow start this year, especially those blasting teammate Kadarius Toney for his critical offside penalty last weekend.
The Chiefs are currently slogging in with eight wins and five losses this season after winning the Super Bowl just last year. Last year, the Chiefs only lost three games for the whole season, so with five losing games already this season, fans and the team are unsurprisingly frustrated. But Kelce says there is more than enough time to “fix” things, the New York Post reported.
“I think our defense is playing their asses off all year, man,” Kelce said during Wednesday’s episode of the “New Heights” podcast. “We’re not rolling like we have been in the past. And I know there’s a lot of media pointing fingers at some of the skill players that we have, and I say, fuck that, man, and excuse my language.”
“We usually cuss in light-hearted ways, but I feel like you guys had to feel that whoever’s talking s–t on the skill players in our offense right now,” he added.
Kelce admitted that the team’s problems have been of their own making but insisted that most of his teammates are “championship-caliber” players.
“It’s not one guy. It’s everybody is getting a piece of the pie, and yeah, it’s frustrating, but at the same time, we know a lot of it is self-inflicted, and we know that moving forward, it can be fixed, and we have the guys to be able to get it fixed,” he said.
Still, he insists that the critics are driving the team to put their nose to the grindstone and fix things to prove the naysayers wrong.
“I kind of sound like a broken record at this point, but I don’t give a damn,” he admitted. “It’s my livelihood, and it’s to keep this kind of mentality throughout the season. We’re 8-5, amongst the top of the AFC, and this year we’re battling our tail off and figuring out what kind of team we are in a different way than we have in the past.”
He added, “All this that I hear in the media right now about who the Chiefs are, it’s only building that beast that we’ve been trying to create this entire year. And it’s only going to keep making us better and better going through these learning experiences and going through these tough games. In years past, we found ways to win these games, and I think this year we are finding ways to get better every single week.”
Still, he knows they have to get in gear and soon.
“I’ll be the first one to say I gotta play better… I just wanted to make sure that Chiefs Kingdom and everybody knows we have everybody we need right here, and we’re going to get it fixed, man,” he said.
Kelce also spoke about the decision of the refs to invalidate a touchdown play that could have won them the game last weekend.
Travis broke down the craziest lateral that didn’t count
NEW EPISODE PREMIERES NOW: https://t.co/V0MlHQdHEg pic.twitter.com/xlpWJMgFV3
— New Heights (@newheightshow) December 13, 2023
Unfortunately for the Chiefs, the TD was invalidated after Kadarius Toney was called offsides.
Play was called back but can’t believe Kelce tried this 😮
📺: #BUFvsKC on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/pWMED8SAQa pic.twitter.com/LREwwhaQ1N— NFL (@NFL) December 11, 2023
Kelce, though, defended Toney.
“I love KT. If I get the opportunity again, I’m going to throw that shit right to his chest,” Kelce said, adding, “I got all the faith in the world… He’s one of the best players we got with the ball in his hands.
“Everybody hating on KT right now, I’m not trying to hear that. You can f–king miss me with it. I’m trusting in 1-9 every time he’s out there on the field,” Kelce added.
The refs call also angered Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, who went on a tirade on the field and had to be held back by teammates from going over to confront the officials. The Super Bowl-winning QB was blasted by fans and members of the sports media alike for the temper tantrum.
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