What Travis Kelce's Relationship With Chiefs Coach Andy Reid Is Really Like
The 2023-2024 NFL season was a big one for Travis Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. He broke records, he was cheered on at 13 games by his superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift, and he helped lead his team to a Super Bowl win. But during the Super Bowl, he had a moment go viral that he wishes he could take back. He was caught on camera on the sidelines yelling at Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, even knocking him off balance in the outburst.
He got called out about the incident by his big brother Jason Kelce on their podcast "New Heights," and Travis agreed with him that it wasn't the right thing to have done, "It's definitely unacceptable and I immediately wished I could take it back." Despite the sideline blowup between them where you might assume that their relationship is a tense one, Travis and Reid have a strong relationship. On the same "New Heights" podcast episode, Travis said that he wouldn't play for anyone else but "Big Red" — Reid's nickname.
Travis Kelce has a lot of respect and love for Andy Reid
During the first post-Super Bowl "New Heights" podcast, Jason Kelce's take on the viral moment, along with his disapproval at Travis Kelce's behavior, was actually to confirm that there was more to it than just a player yelling at a coach, "The reason this happens is because you two love each other so much and respect each other so much that you feel open enough to have an interaction like this that you don't care that everybody's watching this." Travis noted how much respect he has for Reid, saying, "He's like a f****** father to me."
When Reid was asked about the moment by ESPN after the game, he had nothing but good things to say about Travis. "There's nobody I get better than I get him," Reid said, "He wants to play. [...] He makes me feel young."
The Super Bowl sideline moment wasn't the only time in the 2023 season that Travis lost his temper. Reid had a talking-to with Travis because he threw his helmet during the Christmas day game against the Raiders, which the Chiefs ended up losing. Travis characterized the interaction, and Reid's coaching of him that game, as Reid, "looking out for me. [...] He wanted to just get the best out of me," per "New Heights."
Andy Reid has seen Travis Kelce transform as a player
This seems to be a pattern for Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid — working to bring out the best in Travis Kelce, expecting it from him, and holding him accountable. It started back on NFL Draft Day in 2013 when he called Travis to make sure he was ready to play for him. Travis talked about the interaction with Fox News, saying Reid told him, "'This minute you start to go astray I'm going to kick your ***.'" Travis really responded to that: "that laid the foundation for the discipline, how he's gonna coach me."
A lot of the insight we have about the relationship comes from conversations between Travis and his big brother Jason Kelce on their "New Heights" podcast. Both have played with Reid as their head coach — before Reid came to Kansas City in 2013, he was a coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, and Reid drafted both Kelce brothers to the NFL. Reid even appeared as a guest star on "New Heights" in May 2023, and he said that as he's coached Travis over the last several years, "I've watched him blossom into a leader."
However, he did acknowledge the amount of yelling he had to do, particularly in Travis' first year, but for Travis, that helped show him how much Reid cared about him. We're glad to hear the tough love relationship seems to be working well, and both men seem to respect each other.