Swifties tuning into the Wednesday, December 13, episode of Travis Kelce‘s “New Heights” podcast didn’t get a birthday shout-out for Taylor Swift — but fans there for sports certainly got intel into the tight end’s now-infamous lateral pass.
Jason Kelce asked his brother, 34, about throwing the ball to Kadarius Toney during the fourth quarter of the Sunday, December 10, Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Buffalo Bills game after catching the first pass of the play from quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“How did you go from having [the ball] tucked to throwing a perfect spiral that fast?” Jason, 36, asked.
Travis was in awe of himself for being able to pull off the play. “I saw [KT] out of the corner of my eye in a lateral position — in a position where I knew if I could get him the ball, I knew he had space to score a touchdown,” he said, adding that he thought the ball was “tipped” when it left his hands. “It was extremely close, so you probably won’t see me doing that every single game. I promise you guys. You guys, that was a little too close for comfort.”
While Toney did score, the touchdown was reversed because the refs called a penalty for offensive offsides on the receiver. Mahomes subsequently had a meltdown on the sidelines, declaring the call as the “wildest f–king call” he’s ever seen. (Offensive offsides or being in the neutral zone has not been a common flag for refs to call in past NFL seasons, but the penalty has been called 11 times so far throughout the 2023 season.)
“I went up to KT today, and I told ’em, I was like, ‘Man, we had that place f–king rocking. Oh man, that crowd, Arrowhead, was on fire after that play.’ I told him, I was like, ‘Hey man, we’re just going to have to do it again, big dog,'” Travis recalled to Jason. “You can say what you want about him being in the neutral zone here and there [or say], ‘He lined up like that all game, didn’t get warned, blah, blah, blah. Don’t call it in that position.’ You can’t put it in the ref’s hands in that position. We’ve talked about plays like this all the time, especially in critical moments.”
Travis went on to praise Toney. “I love KT. If we get the opportunity again, I’m going to throw that s–t right into his chest again. Hopefully he gets there and I got all the faith in the world [in] that dude, he’s one of our best players,” he continued. “He’s one of the best players we got with the ball in his hands. You turn on the film, you watch what he does when the ball’s in his hands and you can’t tell me you don’t want that guy in your team, man. So 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 19 every time he’s out there on the field.”
Jason noted that Mahomes didn’t calm down after the game, which the Chiefs lost 20-17. “Pat fired up after the game. He was fired up on the sideline. I think once he got to the sideline and looked at the iPad is probably when he was like that looked like when he got really upset,” Jason said.
The Eagles center went on to recap Mahomes’ post-game press conference, in which he argued that the reversed call wasn’t fair to Travis and his legacy in the NFL.
“I love Pat for that,” Travis said. “Everybody’s just sticking up for each other man. And that’s all I give a damn about. If they get fined for what they said, OK, but at least the guys in this locker room know that we got their back and we are all in this thing together and that we’re f–king moving forward, man. And we put our f–king hearts in it, man. You’re not seeing guys just coming in and clocking in and out for a paycheck, man. You got guys actually give a damn, not only about the wins and losses, but the livelihoods of each individual in that building.”
Travis concluded that the team is moving forward after two back-to-back defeats.
“This is only going to make us that much want to play harder, that much more for each other. And I appreciate Pat saying that. I love Coach [Andy] Reid. I love the ability to have our guys’ backs, but at the same time, man, we’ve been in a lot of f–king close games and we got to find ways to win no matter what,” he said. “I’m more pissed off at how I ran my route after that on the 4th and 15.”
The Chiefs next game is against the New England Patriots on Sunday, December 17, at Gillette Stadium. It’s unclear whether Swift, 34, who was in attendance for the Chiefs loss to the Bills, will be at the Pats game, but a source told Us Weekly that Travis is prepared to pull out all the stops on her 34th birthday on Wednesday.
