Travis Kelce gave an impassioned defense of his skill position teammates amid heavy criticism from fans and media members around the NFL.
Kelce, speaking during an episode of his podcast New Heights, gave an NSFW defense of teammates like Kadarius Toney, whose crucial offensive offsides penalty wiped away a potential game-winning touchdown against the Bills on Sunday. But despite several media members like Stephen A. Smith urging Chiefs stars like Kelce and Patrick Mahomes to publicly call out teammates for their poor performances, Kelce took the opposite tact, backing his teammates while criticizing media members that have fanned the flames of late.
“There’s a lot of media pointing fingers on the skill players on our team, I say f—- that,” Kelce said. “Excuse my language, we usually cuss in light hearted ways but you guys had to feel that, whoever is talking s—- on our skills players and our offense.
“This is a group effort and when you turn the film on what's real is that we've got guys that can play this game and we've got guys that we can have success with and win championships with. I know it, I've been on championship-winning teams. When you watch the film, penalties, turnovers and critical moments, it's everybody, it's not just one guy. Everybody is getting a piece of the pie.”
Kelce also took the opportunity to shout out the Chiefs’ defense, which he believes isn’t getting enough credit.
“Our defense is playing their asses off all year man,” Kelce said.
In all, it seems like the Chiefs star tight end isn’t wavering in his belief that this group has championship potential, even if this season has been a somewhat bumpy ride. And the criticism from the media is only further fueling the fire.
“All this I hear in the media about who the Chiefs are, it’s only building that beast. It's only going to keep making us better and better going through these learning experiences and these tough games. In years past, we found ways to win these games and I think this year we're finding ways to keep getting better every single week.”