The Kansas City Chiefs are champions of the NFL once more and Travis Kelce just wants one thing.
“Put some respect on our name,” the fired-up tight end said after Kansas City pipped the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 in a thrilling Super Bowl LVII.
“[Not] one of y’all said that the Chiefs were gonna take it home this year. Not a single one. Feel that s***? Feel that?”
Okay, Kelce may be exaggerating a little. Well, actually a lot, because it’s not like the Chiefs are some stunning underdog story that the entire NFL can get behind.
But after trading away superstar wide receiver Tyreek Hill, it did look like Kansas City was taking a small step backwards this season in order to take many more forward in the future.
The latter still remains true. The Chiefs have 11 picks in the upcoming draft and plenty of cap space to work with too. Moving on from Hill though didn’t slow Kansas City down.
Instead, it only accelerated the development of some new offensive weapons, led by seventh-round running back Isiah Pacheco.
Meanwhile, some things also remained the same. Kelce was still the best tight end in the league, only building on his unstoppable connection with quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Speaking of Mahomes, he became the first player to take home the NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same season this century, all while hobbling around on a sprained ankle.
“I think what I’ve recognised by the end of this year and what I’m more than willing to accept is that Mahomes is in his own tier,” The Athletic’s Robert May said on ‘The Athletic Football Show’ last month.
“He is in own tier of quarterbacks and players in the NFL. He’s the best player in football.”
Mahomes has been here before, universally celebrated as the confetti falls and another crowning moment is added to the 27-year-old’s long list of achievements in the sport.
MORE SUPER BOWL NEWS
Aussie rages as image exposes $1.1m Super Bowl farce
Hurts goes from hero to zero in 5-mins | 01:00
But this felt different. This, as Mahomes said after Monday’s game, felt like a reminder of just how hard it can be to get to this point — both as an individual and as a team.
“We’re not done yet,” he defiantly claimed.
“This one hits different. You appreciate the hard work it took to get here.”
After all, it was only two years ago that Mahomes was — in his on words — beaten “the worst I’ve been in a long time” when the Chiefs were humbled in their last Super Bowl appearance.
Mahomes was 26 of 49 passing for 270 yards and two interceptions with no touchdowns as the Chiefs quarterback was consistently pressured by a ferocious Tampa Bay offensive line.
In fact, Mahomes was pressured a Super Bowl record 29 times in the 31-9 loss, but it was the lingering pain of that defeat that put the Chiefs on a path to glory again.
It all started with a promise from GM Brett Veach.
“It was on the bus ride out of the stadium,” Louis Riddick said on ESPN.
“He [Veach] thought to himself and said to Andy Reid, ‘I will fix this. That will not happen to us again. We will not have our quarterback under duress like that ever again if I can help it’.
“Then immediately they went out and signed Joe Thuney, drafted Creed Humphrey, they got Orlando Brown, got Trey Smith and the result is you can lose a Tyreek Hill, you can have Clyde Edwards-Helaire go on IR, have a seventh-round running back come in and pick up the slack, you can sign Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Juju Smith-Schuster and the quarterback can still throw for 5000 yards and win his second MVP and win a Super Bowl MVP.
“Get out of here.”
With Mahomes already crippled by a high ankle sprain, and later seemingly reaggravating the injury in the second quarter, it was only even more important Kansas City’s rebuilt offensive line stood tall.
And they did just that, not giving up a single sack to an Eagles defence that ranked best in the league at pass rushing and had the third-most sacks (78) in NFL history this season.
“We just executed and did our job to the highest of levels,” Brown said after the game.
“It was all so worth it. Zero sacks. Tell them to put it on a f***ing T-shirt.”
For former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovksy, Monday’s Super Bowl triumph was yet another example of just how complete Kansas City is as a team.
Aussie’s botched punt creates SB history | 00:53
“Today was for me in many ways a glimpse of why Kansas City has been who they have been for the past five years,” he said on ESPN.
“Patrick was tremendous, this rebuilt offensive line didn’t give up a sack, Andy Reid put on an absolute coaching clinic with Eric Bieniemy on how to minimise a defence’s strength and then attack it. And the defence made plays.”
Further proof that trading away one superstar wide receiver would not be the cataclysmic blow some talking heads seemed to make it out to be.
Instead the Chiefs are back where they are supposed to be, “on top of the mountain” as Kelce put it, and set up for the future so that they won’t have to come back down for a long time.
But is it a dynasty?
Mahomes was hesitant to say that word just yet, telling reporters post-game the Chiefs have a “long way to go” before they can call themselves that.
“I’m not going to say dynasty yet,” Mahomes said. “Because we’re not done.”
“You can call it whatever you want,” added Kelce.
“All I know is we’re coming back next year with our heart and our mindset.”
Chris Jones though predicted the Chiefs were going to build a dynasty three years ago, after Kansas City defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV.
“We gonna build a f***ing dynasty in Kansas City,” he said back in 2020.
“We’re like the Golden State Warriors, baby.”
A guy called Tom Brady had other ideas. But that loss triggered big changes to the offensive line and now that Kansas City is back here again, does Jones still think this is a dynasty?
“I told y’all this after the first Super Bowl,” he said.
“I told y’all this, ‘We’re going to go back-to-back. Everybody laughed. Everybody thought I was just talking out of the side of my neck.”
But he was right and now the foundations are in place for Kansas City and that Mahomes-Kelce combination to dominate the league for at least a few more years.
“With all the turnover they’ve had on their team, all the rookies that are playing this year, this is supposed to be a bridge year,” Riddick said.
“They’ve got 11 draft picks and they’re going to have a tonne of cap space this offseason. “What does that say?”
It says the Chiefs knew what they were doing. It says they’re always finding different ways to keep the competition guessing.
It says maybe Kelce is right. Maybe we still haven’t put enough respect on their name.
