KANSAS CITY, Mo. — No one would have blamed Travis Kelce if he suited up for a few plays in Sunday’s season finale at the Los Angeles Chargers.
But he wasn't feeling it.
“At the end of the day, I just didn’t care enough about it,” Kelce said. “I felt like I could get some rest and let the guys just go out there and play the game instead of worrying about getting this old guy 16 yards. It just never felt right, man.”
Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs’ future Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end, needed those 16 yards to reach 1,000 for the eighth consecutive season.
His run of seven straight 1,000-yard seasons, which started in 2016, is unprecedented in NFL history.
But when Kelce considers his legacy, the personal accolades have already piled up. It's the Kombardi Trophy he covets most now.
“I think, without a doubt, I’m thinking more about Super Bowls when I talk (about my) legacy,” Kelce said. “And just having that desire to be a certain type of teammate day in and day out.”
No other tight end has ever had more than four 1,000-yard in their career and Greg Olsen’s three straight 1,000-yard seasons from 2014-16 was the old NFL record before Kelce came along.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid almost certainly would have force fed Kelce the ball early to get him over the 1,000-yard plateau before he retired to the bench for the rest of the game, but Kelce opted to sit out instead and was inactive for the game.
“Travis is a humble, humble guy,” Reid said. “... He didn’t want to be selfish or come across as selfish. Everybody, all the players, wanted him to play, but he just goes, ‘You know what? I don’t like the way it feels.’ He’s not into that, so he chose not to play.”
Kelce, who missed Kansas City’s season opener with a knee injury and only played 15 games in 2023, finished the season with 93 catches for 984 yards and five touchdowns — pedestrian compared to the 96 catches for 1,230 yards and more than eight touchdowns he’d averaged during his record-setting streak of 1,000-yard seasons.
But that streak has now come to an end.
“I completely understand it, but that’s him,” Reid said. “Most guys would have gone out and probably done it. But he said, ‘I’ve got a lot of records. This one here, I’m not going to do it this way.’”
Reid said he would have allowed Kelce to play until he got the 16 yards he needed, if he wanted to suit up for the game.
Defensive tackle Chris Jones, who needed a half-sack to trigger a $1.25-million bonus, did opt to play.
Reid said that decision was different than Kelce’s because of the payday involved, which is why Jones played into the third quarter before getting the seven-figure sack during the Chiefs’ 13-12 win at SoFi Stadium.
Kansas City (11-6), which won the AFC West for the eighth straight season, hosts the Miami Dolphins (11-6) at 7 p.m. on Saturday in a Super Wild Card rematch of the the Chiefs’ 21-14 win Nov. 5 in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Chiefs-Dolphins game and two other NFL playoff games this weekend can be seen on KSHB 41 in the Kansas City market.
If you normally get KSHB over the air or through a cable package, you will be able to watch the game on KSHB. Otherwise, the game will stream on Peacock.
Temperatures for the postseason opener at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium may be near zero with dangerously cold wind chills.
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