In the second quarter of Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, Kelce’s frustration over being subbed out caused a sideline eruption with Reid on the receiving end. After knocking Reid off balance, running back Jerrick McKinnon grabbed Kelce away from the 65-year-old coach.
On Monday, Brady defended Kelce’s actions on his Sirius XM program ‘Let’s Go’ with Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray.
‘There’s always little family issues and of course I don’t mind seeing it ’cause I was a part of a lot of those things,’ Brady said. ‘Emotions are so high. You are definitely not centered and balanced. You’re not in a meditative state at that point. You are fully determined to go out there and to win.
‘So I think a lot of the things that are said during the games, people should just let them fly off their back. And I actually think coach Reid handled it just awesome, like he always does, ’cause he just said, ‘I was a little off balance and Travis is such a competitor.’ And I love that because it just speaks to his leadership ability.’
As Kelce received a lot of backlash for getting physical with his older coach, the words he said during the incident were not any friendlier. Lip reader Jeremy Freeman told the New York Post that Kelce yelled: ‘Hey, come on, you f*****, put me on.’
The decision to pull him came from a slow first half performance which ended with one catch for one yard.
Kelce finished the game with nine receptions for 93 yards as the Chiefs secured a 25-22 overtime win in Las Vegas. Postgame, Reid said that Kelce apologized and hugged him after the incident.
‘It speaks to the self-confidence that coach Reid has in himself, too, ’cause he doesn’t take that personally at all,’ Brady added.
‘He doesn’t look at that and feel like someone offended him. He takes it for what it is and doesn’t make it more than it is and doesn’t see someone’s trying to belittle him. Travis is not trying to do any of those things. He’s just trying to be fired up and stay in the moment.’
The Chiefs have now won three of the last five Super Bowls after appearing in four of them. With Sunday’s win, they have become the first back-to-back champions since Brady’s Patriots in 2003 and 2004.
