When people think of Travis Kelce, they think of Patrick Mahomes. And vice versa. But the big tight end actually spent his first five seasons catching passes from veteran Alex Smith. His career high in yards and receptions were 1,125 and 85 with Smith. He was an elite receiving tight end, but catapulted to superstardom in 2018 when Mahomes took over.
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He has now spent seven seasons with Mahomes, topping 100 receptions three times and 1,200 yards four times. In fact, since Mahomes took over under center for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018, Kelce is second in receptions (first among TEs) and third in yards (first among TEs) across the NFL. And of course, there are all those Super Bowls. Three wins and two losses, to be exact.
So much success between a pair of players obviously stems from their respective talents. But perhaps even more important is the chemistry between the two. “Bromance” would certainly be a fitting way to describe their relationship. Mahomes recently talked about how they first connected during a recent appearance on Kelce’s New Heights podcast.
“The first time I thought me and Trav were gonna be connected was—you remember when we had the fourth preseason game, you used to have a little off time. I set eight alarms on my phone, and I go out with the rookies. I get out there, and I see old Travis Kelce,” Mahomes started his narration.
“Travis is like, ‘Come on! Let’s have a great time!’ Get home, I have all my alarms set up. I go to sleep. Wake up, not to an alarm. Look at the TV, and I see 8:15. I didn’t put my phone in the charger, so my phone died. So I obviously drove to the facility, extremely fast.”
You see, even the greatest athletes in the world have alarm issues, so don’t feel alone!
When Mahomes got there, he was called up to the office like a bad kid who got caught trying to skip class in school. Of course, they asked who he had been with last night: was it, Travis?
As Mahomes recounted, “I sit in the locker room, they call me up to the office. I thought it was so weird that the first question they asked me was, ‘Were you with Travis?’ And I was like, ‘No, why would you even ask that?'”
Kelce then shared his side of the story, “I walked into the building and they’re like, ‘Were you with Pat last night? Where is Pat at?’ I was just like, ‘My dog man, I’m not alone!’ (Laughs)”
They bonded over their shared recklessness that day. But Mahomes says they’ve “been on the straight and narrow since then.” And that is plain to see.
Not only have they been the nucleus of this generation’s great NFL dynasty (their 16 playoff TDs are the most for a QB-receiver duo), but they’ve also started to build their relationship in the business sphere, opening up a restaurant, “1587 Prime,” in Kansas City recently.
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While it’s good to see them locking in off the field, Chiefs fans will certainly hope that this dynamic duo has at least one more Super Bowl ride in them after last year’s push for a three-peat that ended in humiliation.
