NEW ORLEANS — Nothing seems off the table for Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce given his crossover appeal in a setting like Super Bowl LIX Opening Night. From retirement to girlfriend Taylor Swift, Kelce tried his best to navigate the swath of attention he’s become used to at this point.
Kelce, who turns 36 in October, once again expressed his desire to continue playing beyond the 2024 season. He also discussed keeping a focus on football and playing the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday despite the Super Bowl hoopla.
“I mean you just focus on the task ahead,” Kelce said. “I think it’s similar to things you might have going on in your life outside of the building throughout the season. You’ve got to be able to compartmentalize what you’re going through and still be able to be accountable.”
But as expected, a variety of off-the-wall and absurd questions were thrown Kelce’s way. Here’s a sample:
Question: “What do you love more: Taylor Swift or phantom 15-yard penalties in the playoffs?”
Kelce: “That’s a good question. Anybody else?”
Question: “What would you tell your 12-year-old self?”
Kelce: “Man, take things a little bit more seriously.”
Question: “How do you feel about people hating the Chiefs now?”
Kelce: “People hate the Chiefs? I didn’t know that.”
Question: “What would be your WWE entrance?”
Kelce: “I’m just coming in like Stone Cold (Steve Austin). Hear that glass shatter and just come out like a bada—.”
Question: “What would be your pitch to the non-Swiftie NFL fans for them to jump on board?”
Kelce: “Who’s not a Swiftie?”
Embracing the villain role?
The Chiefs took the stage to a roar from their fans. But before long, a sizable number of fans began to boo, whether or not they were wearing Eagles apparel.
The Chiefs don’t view themselves as villains. But they understand that a victory over the Eagles, giving them an unprecedented third consecutive Lombardi Trophy, would only increase the hate they might receive throughout the league.
“I think it’s natural, and we certainly saw it with the Patriots when they were on their almost two-decade run as the best team in the NFL,” Chiefs club owner Clark Hunt said. “It was fun looking back when we made Super Bowl LIV and we really felt we had a lot of the country behind us. That’s shifted. Fans don’t like seeing the same team being on top.”
One Chiefs fan in the stands at Caesars Superdome leaned into the theory that the Chiefs receive preferential treatment from game officials. The young man donned a Chiefs-themed official’s uniform. Instead of the NFL’s shield on his black-and-white shirt, he had the Chiefs’ logo stitched in several places. He even held a yellow flag that he playfully threw at other fans while cheering at times for the Chiefs.
“It kind of brings you closer together when people are rooting against you,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “You become a tighter brotherhood in that locker room. … And (we’ll) go out there and try to win the game against everybody.
“If winning football games makes you a villain, we’re gonna keep going out there and do it.”
“If winning football games makes you a villain, we’re gonna keep going out there and do it.”
📺: #SBOpeningNight on @nflnetwork
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/3ZSr4krhy2— NFL (@NFL) February 4, 2025
Moment of truth for DeAndre Hopkins
Former Pro Bowl wideout Brandon Marshall apparently dumped truth serum into DeAndre Hopkins’ water bottle.
Marshall asked Hopkins about a moment in his career when he wondered if there would be anything better. The Chiefs wideout opened up about the end of his tenure with the Tennessee Titans from earlier this season, which led to him being traded to the Chiefs in late October.
Hopkins harkened back to his final game with the Titans against the Bills in Week 6
“That was probably one of the worst games in my career … Not for statistics, but I wasn’t included in the game plan,” he said. “I was out there running around, man, and I was like ‘Damn!’ And I actually benched myself. I never took myself out of any game. I’m a competitor, you know. I would play this game for free, man. … When you remove yourself, something bigger is coming. I didn’t see this happening (trade to the Chiefs), but something’s got to give.”
“After that game, a lot of stuff in the media was going around about me being benched because I left the game earlier. ‘Oh, he must gonna get traded.’ There was a trade deadline coming up and as a player, you hear all that stuff, you hear the chatter. So I went to (then-Titans general manager) Ran (Carthon), and that’s something I’ve never done before, go to a GM’s office. And I was like, ‘Ran, you can tell that I’m not happy here. You saw what happened. Is there any way we could find a medium or a win-win situation?’”
The Chiefs traded for Hopkins the next day.
Hopkins said he was grateful for how Carthon handled the situation and traded him to a place he could win rather than when the Houston Texans traded him to the Arizona Cardinals earlier in his career.
Spike that idea
After getting roasted for whiffing on a spike in the AFC Championship Game against the Bills, Mahomes is not dying for a do-over.
“I will probably never try to spike the ball ever again,” he said. “That was so bad. And it was such a cool play that I feel like I’m gonna see a lot in my life and I’m gonna look at that spike every single time. So I’ll never try to spike a football again.”
(Photo: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
