Amid all the controversy from the Kansas City Chiefs’ AFC championship win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, Chiefs wide receiver Nikko Remigio’s contributions to the game have largely gone unnoticed.
Remigio only played in five regular season games for the Chiefs in 2024, his first year in Kansas City. However, he has made quite the impact as a kickoff and punt returner in the NFL playoffs since being elevated from the practice squad in December.
In the divisional round win over the Houston Texans, Remigio returned the opening kickoff for 63 yards. Then, in the AFC title game, Remigio recorded a 44-yard punt return to get the Chiefs into Bills’ territory before halftime. Kansas City would go on to score a touchdown and take a 21-10 lead into the second half.
Prior to making that big play, Remigio apparently got an earful of advice from Travis Kelce who had a stern message for the young buck early in the game.
“Trav had come up to me earlier in the game and you know I had fair-caught that first punt coming out of the gates and he was like, ‘That’s not being great, bro.’” Remigio said on the Up & Adams Show. “And so I knew going into this next opportunity that I had, I'm like, ‘I got to make something happen.’”
#Chiefs WR @nikkoremigio on what Travis Kelce told him after he fair caught the first punt of the AFC Championship game 👀🔊
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) January 29, 2025
"That's not being great bro..."
Remigio took the next punt for 41 yards 😏@tkelce @heykayadams @chiefs | #chiefskingdom pic.twitter.com/JKbz0C5CGT
“He was the first one to greet me coming to the sidelines and he was like, ‘That’s how you be great, dog!’” Remigio said.
Leave it to a three-time Super Bowl champ to know how to fire up his own teammates.
Remigio, a 5-foot-9, 190-pound receiver who played at Cal and Fresno State, will get his first taste of the Super Bowl as the team’s special teams returner against the Philadelphia Eagles. Win or lose, rest assured he’ll have Kelce and the other Chiefs veterans by his side for the big game.
More of the Latest Around the NFL
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Chiefs WR Shared How Travis Kelce Motivated Him to Make a Big Play in AFC Title Win.
