“This road to where we are now has been more of a challenge, which means you have to overcome more, which means it kinda means a little bit more,” the Chiefs star said.
Travis Kelce is savoring the Kansas City Chiefs’ return to the Super Bowl. On the latest episode of New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, the NFL stars looked back on the season thus far, and Travis shared his perspective about playing in the championship game for the fourth time in five years. “It feels like it’s a bit sweeter man,” the tight end, 34, said. “This road to where we are now has been more of a challenge, which means you have to overcome more, which means it kinda means a little bit more.”
As recently as last month, Travis shared his frustrations about the team’s chemistry and their setbacks on the podcast, after the Chiefs lost to the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Day — and his emotions got the best of him during the game causing him to throw his helmet on the sidelines in disgust. “Every single play is somebody not doing their job, and it’s me,” Travis said on the podcast after the game. “It’s everybody on the team. And whether that’s prep, whether that’s having the confidence and understanding of what the defense is in their coverages, their gaps in the run game, how we’re picking up blitzes, how we’re running routes versus certain coverages. All the above.”
He added to Jason: “Everybody’s just got to f—ing do their job.” Since then, the team has done just that, taking care of business in the playoffs, with a resounding win against the Miami Dolphins in the wild-card round before beating the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens. On the trip back to Kansas City after Sunday’s game, the mood on the team plane reflected the winding road the Chiefs have taken to ultimately arrive in Las Vegas on Feb. 11 for the big game.
“You could feel it in the locker room afterwards, you could feel it on the plane ride home,” Travis said. “This one, we got to have an entire two-hour flight to ourselves where it was just us partying on the plane back home, man, and it was electric. It was awesome, we had the coaches coming back to where the players were and reminiscing on the season and enjoying every single bit.” He added, “We got a special group, man, and that’s why this one feels that much better. Let’s go and get it, baby!”