Victorious Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid laughed off Travis Kelce shoving him on the sidelines in shocking scenes midway through their Super Bowl win over the 49ers.
As the Chiefs offense struggled to get going in the first half, Kelce reacted angrily to Reid removing him from a play that ended with Isiah Pacheco fumbling the ball with the end zone in range in the second quarter.
Kelce pushed Reid so hard the 65-year-old lost his balance, with Kelce even grabbing his left arm – seemingly at one point to hold him up – while he was screaming in his face before a teammate dragged him away.
‘He keeps me young,’ Reid said with a chuckle on his victory lap interview with CBS alongside his wife, Tammy, after the Chiefs beat San Francisco 25-22.
‘Not so good (balance) – he tested that hip out. He caught me off-balance – normally I get him a little bit but I didn’t have any feet under me.’
Kelce tried to laugh off the incident too, saying: ‘Ah, you guys saw that? I’m a keep that between us unless my mic’d up tells the world.
‘I was just telling him how much I love him.’
The ‘mic’d up’ reference Kelce made refers to teams having certain players wear a microphone in games.
Afterwards, organizations release in-depth videos for fans to hear how players communicate during key moments.
It often provides fascinating insight into how the greatest minds respond to the heat of sporting battle but it remains to be seen if the Chiefs now choose to edit out the exchange between Reid and Kelce.
Speaking in his post-game press conference, Reid reiterated that there were no hard feelings with the 34-year-old Kelce.
‘He loves to play the game and he loves to help his team win,’ Reid said. ‘It’s not a selfish thing.
‘As much he bumps into me, I get after him. We understand that. He just caught me off balance.’
Kelce, too, at his own post-game press conference could only speak glowingly of Reid.
‘I got the greatest coach this game has ever seen,’ he said. ‘He’s unbelievable and not just in having everyone prepared.
‘One of the best leaders of men I’ve ever seen in my life.
‘He has helped me a lot with channeling that emotion, with channeling that passion and I owe my entire career to that and how to control how emotional I get. I just love him.’