ESPN personality Chris Russo had some strong words for Travis Kelce after he refused to talk to the media after the Kansas City Chiefs were officially eliminated from the playoffs.
“How about Kelce on Sunday afternoon?” Russo, 66, said Wednesday, December 17, on ESPN’s First Take. “They just lose a game. [Patrick] Mahomes tears his ACL. The last play of the game [backup quarterback Gardner] Minshew goes to Kelce to try and kick a field goal. Intercepted. And Kelce, after he settles down in the locker room, he says, ‘Not today, fellas. I’m not going to talk to you.’”
Following the Chiefs’ loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, December 14, which officially eliminated Kansas City from playoff contention, Kelce, 36, told reporters in the locker room, “Sorry guys, it’s not the time. I’ll catch you guys during the week.”
“Hold on now. Timeout,” Russo continued. “We got these poor guys who have been covering the Chiefs for years, who go to every training camp, practice, every preseason game. Every day for seven months they cover the football team and you blow them off at the end of this game when they got Mahomes out? Maybe the last game you’re ever gonna play [with him]? You can’t give them three words? You can’t give them, ‘Terrible day for us, I don’t know what I’m going to do with my career? Hopefully Pat will be OK.’”
Kylie Kelce Recaps Daughters’ 1st Home Chiefs Game With Taylor Swift
Mahomes, 30, suffered a season-ending torn ACL on the final drive of the game, which puts his status for the start of next season in question. Kelce will be forced to decide if he wants to return for another season, or choose to retire.
Russo chastised Kelce for not speaking to the media after such “a huge moment in Kansas City and NFL history.”
“You blow everybody off walking off the field and you don’t talk to the press and you get in the car?” Russo said. “That is wrong. That is not the way to do things. You give them five minutes. Give them a couple of sentences for the Chiefs fans. Really down on him.”
When Will Travis Kelce Retire? What He and His Family Have Said About an Exit
Sunday marked the third time this season Kelce refused to talk to reporters after a loss, instead using his “New Heights” podcast, which he cohosts with his brother Jason Kelce, as a platform to discuss the Chiefs’ disappointing year.
“Listen, I understand you got your brother and you do the podcast. I get that,” Russo added. “Maybe you want to save the exclusive news. But no serious sports fan listens to that nonsense anyway.”
Indeed, Travis did use this week’s episode of “New Heights” to discuss the Chiefs’ playoff chances dying — and what the final three weeks of the season will look like.
“We got three games left … the integrity of who you are as a professional, as a player, you gotta love this s***, man,” Travis said on the Wednesday episode of the podcast. “And Chiefs Kingdom, we’re gonna give you everything we got. There’s no question about that,” he told listeners. “There’s only one way I do things, there’s only one way Coach Reid does things, and if we’re gonna go out there and play some football, we’re gonna do it the right way and keep trying to get these things fixed and end on the highest note we can.”
