Travis Kelce, tight-end for the reigning Super Bowl champs — and of course, Taylor Swift‘s beau — has apologized for his aggressive behaviour on the sidelines with Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.
Travis, 34, became upset during football’s biggest night after being pulled from the game during the first half while the Chiefs were trailing the San Francisco 49ers.
Footage from Sunday’s Super Bowl showed Travis shouting angrily in his coach’s face and bumping him with his body, causing Reid, 65, to stumble and lose his balance momentarily. Teammate Jerick McKinnon then wrapped his arms around Travis and pulled him away.
Many viewers were up in arms over Travis’ outburst and some Swift fans called for the pop star to dump her NFL boyfriend.
“It’s definitely unacceptable, I immediately wished I could take it back,” Travis said of the incident while speaking on the New Heights podcast he hosts with his brother Jason Kelce, a centre for the Philadelphia Eagles.
“You crossed the line,” Jason said. “The yelling in his face too is over the top.”
Travis revealed that he was prepared to get “an ass chewing” from Reid after he caused the coach to stumble, but all Reid said was he admired the player’s passion and warned him to be aware of the cameras.
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“Coach Reid came right up to me after that and didn’t even have harsh words for me,” Travis said. “I deserve it. If he would have cold cocked me in the face right there, I would have just ate it.”
“It just fired me up even more to go out there and get a f—ing victory for him, man. Because that’s how much I love that dude,” the tight end added.
In a post-game interview with CBS on Sunday, Reid shrugged off the incident.
“He keeps me young,” Reid said. “He tested that hip out. He caught me off balance — normally, I’d give him a little bit, but I didn’t have any feet under me.”
Travis explained during the podcast that he and Reid have “a certain relationship” and that the coach has “checked” him a few times, but he wouldn’t want to play for anyone else.
“I love Coach Reid. Coach Reid knows how much I love to play for him, how much I love to be a product of his coaching career. I’m not playing for anybody else but Big Red, if he calls it quits this year I’m out there with him,” Travis said.
He also explained that the shoving and shouting “came in a moment where we weren’t playing very well, I wasn’t playing very well.”
“Sometimes those emotions get away from you, man. That’s been the battle of my career,” Travis said. “So, Big Red, sorry if I caught you with that cheap shot, baby.”
The pushing incident at the Super Bowl was certainly a big talker. NFL legend Tom Brady discussed it on his SiriusXM radio show “Let’s Go! With Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray” and came to Travis’ defence.
“Emotions are so high,” Brady said, speaking of playing in the NFL, especially at the Super Bowl. “You are definitely not centred and balanced. You’re not in a meditative state at that point. You are fully determined to go out there and to win.”
“So I think a lot of the things that are said during the games, people should just let them fly off their back,” he added. “And I actually think Coach Reid handled it just awesome, like he always does, ’cause he just said, ‘I was a little off balance and Travis is such a competitor.’
“It speaks to the self-confidence that Coach Reid has in himself, too, ’cause he doesn’t take that personally at all. He doesn’t look at that and feel like someone offended him,” Brady said.
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