Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid sold his soul to win the Super Bowl by allowing Travis Kelce’s sideline meltdown, claimed analyst Skip Bayless.
Chiefs tight end Kelce sparked backlash when he shockingly stormed up to his head coach on the sidelines during the second quarter of the Super Bowl, shoved Reid and screamed in his face.
Kelce appeared to face no punishment from the franchise for his startling actions with both he and Reid brushing off his outburst following the game.
Furthermore, the NFL star was mic’d up for the Super Bowl, meaning his astonishing moment of madness was recorded but his blushes were spared when Inside the NFL, which was released the Tuesday following the big game, failed to show the snippet.
Chiefs were suspected to have blocked the audio from making it to air with the direction said to have come from Reid himself, a report from the New York Post claimed.
FS1 analyst Bayless claimed he wasn’t surprised that the franchise may have moved to prevent Kelce’s outburst from reaching the public.
‘Good story in the NY Post by Ryan Glasspiegel indicates the Chiefs managed to keep NFL Films audio of Travis Kelce attacking Andy Reid from airing anywhere,’ he tweeted earlier this week
‘No surprise. Kelce was verbally as well as physically abusive. No punishment. Andy sold his coaching soul for that SBowl.’
Kelce was left out of a play with the Chiefs in range of their first touchdown on the night but the move broke down with Isiah Pacheco fumbling against the 49ers. They showed Kelce slamming his helmet to the ground in reaction on the sidelines before screaming at Reid, a 65-year-old grandfather, but analysts spoke over the footage and then showed a clip of them fist-bumping soon after.
It could have been the enduring image of the game if Kelce and the Chiefs had lost. Instead, Kelce’s fairytale season reached a fresh high as he became a Super Bowl champion for the third time with girlfriend Taylor Swift cheering him on from the stands.
The 34-year-old Kelce, who stands at 6ft 5′ and weighs 250 pounds, refused to reveal what he shouted in Reid’s face but admitted following the Super Bowl that his mic could give him away.
‘Ah, you guys saw that? I’m gonna keep it between us unless my mic’d up tells the world,’ he said in the immediate aftermath of his Vegas victory. ‘I was just telling him how much I love him.’
But it appears the Chiefs star will not have to face that reality with the show brushing over the incident.
Reid, for his part, was keen to downplay the situation after the game, joking that Kelce ‘keeps him young.’
He added: ‘He tested that hip out. He caught me off balance – normally, I’d give him a little bit, but I didn’t have any feet under me.
‘He was really coming over [and saying], “Just put me in, I’ll score. I’ll score.” So, that’s really what it was. I love that. It’s not the first time. I appreciate him.’
Earlier this week, NFL legend Terry Bradshaw revealed that he was worried for the head coach following the incident as he had recently undergone hip surgery.
