Travis Kelce: ‘Felt damn good’ to silence Chiefs doubters

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce says it “felt damn good” to silence the team’s doubters in Super Bowl LVII.

It wasn’t so long ago that the Kansas City Chiefs were predicted to have a tough time in their own division in 2022.

Given the moves made within the division last offseason, NFL analysts and fans coast to coast were projecting much better (and more successful) futures for the Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers, and Las Vegas Raiders. On top of that, the Chiefs also had to worry about serious contenders in their conference—from the Cincinnati Bengals to the Buffalo Bills. And then, of course, the NFC had threats of its own.

Basically, despite the fact that they’d won the AFC West six straight seasons (at the time) and had hosted four consecutive AFC Championships (again, at the time), a good majority of folks had the Chiefs struggling a bit (or a lot) in ’22.

Not only were other teams supposedly better than the Chiefs, but Kansas City was supposed to be some shell of its former self. Not that anyone expected Patrick Mahomes to turn into a pumpkin, but Travis Kelce was getting older, and Tyreek Hill was running routes in South Beach, and the pass rush wasn’t really improved, and the secondary was far too young, and the wide receiver room was a patchwork effort and… you get the drift.

As it turns out, not only were those analysts and fans completely wrong but the Chiefs were paying attention the whole time.

On the most recent episode of the New Heights podcast, hosted by brothers Jason and Travis Kelce, the pair discuss playing in Super Bowl LVII against each other and a host of other topics. When the subject of the Chiefs’ actual victory came up and what it meant, both brothers agreed that the Chiefs had far more naysayers than supporters before the season began.

It’s why Travis Kelce said “it felt pretty damn good” when asked about silencing those doubts.

“A lot of people counted us out,” he said. “A lot of people expected us to not even win our division, expected us to not even to go to the playoffs. They expected Pat Mahomes to have the worst year and me to start kinda fading away. We heard it all summer long. We heard it all preseason long. Then we had the first game and suddenly everybody was, ‘All right, let’s just calm down here.’”

With their second Super Bowl win in four years, everyone now knows that Andy Reid is a genius, that Patrick Mahomes is a man among boys on the field, that Travis Kelce is rewriting history, and that an incredibly young defense was capable of stepping up more than anyone could have projected.

No one should be doubting them at this point.