Kansas City Chiefs future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce continues to make more news off the field than on it, both through the offseason with his high-profile romance with, and ultimately engagement to be married to, global pop megastar Taylor Swift â and as of Sunday, his wardrobe choices.
On the gridiron, Kelce hasn’t done much to generate attention over the Chiefs’ first two games, at least not in a positive way.
With Sunday’s defeat to the Eagles â seven months after Philadelphia crushed them in Super Bowl 59 â the Chiefs have now lost three straight games for the first time in the nine-year career of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and have opened the season at 0-2 for the first season since 2014 â Kelce’s first full season in the NFL, after his rookie year was wiped out by a knee injury.
The Chiefs finished at 9-7, out of the playoff picture, in 2014.
Kelce Has Not Played Well to Start the Season
Kelce has been a significant factor in the Chiefs’ poor start to the season. Though he did score a touchdown in the season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers, he caught only two passes in four targets and somehow collided with one of his own teammates, wide receiver Xavier Worthy, injuring Worthy’s shoulder.
The second year pass-catcher who received six touchdown passes as a rookie year last year has not played since.
The 35-year-old seven-time All-Pro didn’t do much better in Week Two against the Eagles, catching just four passes out of six targets and dropping what appeared to be a touchdown pass from Mahomes, bouncing the football into the arms of a Philadelphia defender who returned the interception 41 yards.
“Kelceâs drop-turned-turnover was worth negative-7.1 points by itself,” according to a report by The Athletic. “It also moved the Chiefsâ expected win probability from 53 percent to 24 percent.”
But following Sunday’s game, Kelce appeared to generate even more passionate reactions to the t-shirt he wore during pre-game warm-ups.
Criticized For Shirt Supporting Convicted Teammate
The shirt was a tribute to Chiefs’ suspended wide receiver Rashee Rice, who in July pled guilty to two felony counts in connection with a high-speed crash on a Dallas, Texas, freeway that injured four people.
Rice was driving at speeds up to 119 mph at the time, in a Lamborghini Urus â a high-end vehicle he was reportedly renting for $1,750 per day, according to an ESPN.com report.
Rice was sentenced to five years probation and 30 days behind bars â which he has not yet served. The NFL suspended Rice for the first six games of 2025 for violations of the league’s personal conduct policy.
But Kelce’s “Free 4” (referring to Rice’s uniform number) t-shirt did not go over well, especially with the lawyer for Kathryn Kuykendal, one of the victims injured in the crash caused by Rice.
According to the attorney, Marc Lenahan, Kuykendal “suffered multiple injuries when the Uber she was in was struck by Rice’s rented Lamborghini,” according to a report by KXAS-TV in Dallas.
Lawyer Admonishes Kelce Over Shirt
The lawyer had some pointed admonitions for Kelce, according to the celebrity news site TMZ on Tuesday.
“The ‘gym teacher’ needs to talk with the history teacher,” Lenahan told the publication â an apparent reference to the caption on Kelce and Swift’s online engagement photo which read, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”
Why he chose to refer to a “history teacher” was somewhat unclear, but appeared to a be reference to his subsequent statement, per TMZ, “Rashee isn’t Nelson Mandela or Pepe Mujica, men who fought for what they believed in.”
Both Mandela and Mujica were political dissidents who were imprisoned by repressive regimes in their countries â South Africa and Uruguay, respectively â and who later went on to become presidents of those countries.
“There is evidence that Rashee was going 119 mph in a $1,749 per day Lambo rental that had pot and a pistol in it, on a highway on Easter weekend,” the attorney continued. “Free Rashee? He already thinks he’s getting away scot-free.”
Lenahan also said that Rice had not yet paid Kuykendal the “$1.1 million judgment he already owes our client, who is living anything but pain-free.”
While the lawyer said that he did “respect” Kelce’s and receiver Tyquan Thornton’s wearing of the shirt to support their suspended teammate, he added, “if Kelce and Thornton truly believed in Rashee, they’d loan him the money to pay his victims.”
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