The Chiefs lost their hopes for the playoffs as well as Patrick Mahomes in one fell swoop on Sunday by losing to the Chargers, 16-13. Mahomes tore his ACL while trying to lead Kansas City to a last-second comeback in order to save the season. Now the Chiefs have to play out the final three games of the year without their superstar quarterback and come to terms with missing the postseason for the first time in a decade.
Star tight end Travis Kelce declined to talk to the media after Sunday’s devastating sequence of events. But on Wednesday he offered his first thoughts on Mahomes’s injury via the New Heights podcast with his brother Jason.
“First things first, obviously, we lost our quarterback, man,” Kelce said when asked for his reaction to Kansas City’s playoff elimination. “(Patrick) Mahomes, our guy, our brother, our fearless leader, our face of the franchise, to an ACL. It’s never easy seeing your guys go down... On a freakish play, to see (Mahomes) go down like that, it f---ing... It was almost like it wasn’t real.
“S--- just sucks, man. For a guy that puts in that much and puts his body on the line week-in week-out... It sucks, man.”
Mahomes came up again later in the podcast.
“He’s a warrior, man,” Kelce said of his teammate. “I’m telling you. This guy has played through everything, battled thorugh everything, been crowned champion because he battled through everything and he’s gonna battle through this. It’s the only way this guy is wired. He’s a fearless, fearless warrior when it comes to this football thing and he’s going to make sure he comes back stronger than ever. Hopefully the Chiefs can get him back as soon as possible.”
Kelce and Mahomes have a tight-knit relationship that is on display throughout each NFL season. Off the field the pair own a restaurant together. So Kelce’s comments above aren’t only about his teammate—they’re about his friend, too.
However, Kelce clearly has all the faith in the world that Mahomes will not let this drag him down. The Chiefs and Kansas City as a whole are hoping he proves correct.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Travis Kelce Gives First Comments on Patrick Mahomes’s Devastating Knee Injury.
