Travis Kelce has harsh words for Justin Tucker over AFC Championship Game warmup incident

Ahead of the AFC Championship Game a video of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce throwing Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker‘s helmet and kicking over his tee caught a lot of people’s attention. Now, Kelce has shared his perspective on it.

In the latest episode of the New Heights podcast, Travis Kelce explained to his brother Jason that Tucker was violating an unwritten rule and creating a dangerous situation.

“But, it’s always — if you’re trying to go onto the other team’s designated area, you kind of stay out of their way. You know? You don’t interfere with what they have going on,” Travis Kelce said. “That’s the unwritten rule. If you want to be a f------ d--- about it, you keep your helmet and your football, and your f------ kicking tee right where the quarterbacks are warming up. And they’re dropping, eyes are looking left and they’ve got a helmet down by their feet.”

To that point, it would have been easy for Mahomes to twist an ankle stepping in the wrong spot and onto something that he wasn’t expecting to be there. So, Kelce helped him move his things.

“Like if you’re not going to pick that up, I’ll happily move that for you. I mean, he was kind of winking at me, being a d--- about it, trying to get under the skin. I get it. But me and Pat? We’ve been having the same mentality for this game all week long, man. And it was a, you’ve got to go in there and have the right mind frame, right mindset, and we just weren’t in a joking mood. We were ready to get after it,” Kelce said.

“So, Justin, sorry if we took it to a level that you didn’t think it’d get to that way, but if you’re going to be a d---, I promise you, I can one up you every time, dude.”

At that point, Jason Kelce shared some of his own perspective, which was that Justin Tucker was trying to get under their skin and it worked.

“He’s a legendary kicker and he knows how to poke the buttons,” Jason said. “He does this. And there’s other kickers that will do it, too, other punters. You know, it’s definitely unwritten that you stay out of the way of the other team when they’re trying to utilize the field. You find a way to work on the other side of the field when it makes sense. That’s part of the game within the game. You can tell he’s playing it in these clips, you can see his facial expressions — he knows what he’s doing. He got under your skin and listen, it worked. It got under your skin but it worked the wrong way because it was the record day for the Yeti.”

Travis Kelce breaks Jerry Rice’s all-time playoff receptions record during AFC Championship

Even amid the frustrations before the game, Travis Kelce still had an excellent game on the field and helped send the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl. During the game, Kelce broke Jerry Rice‘s all-time playoff receptions record.

Kelce came into the game with 145 catches in his playoff career, trailing Rice by six receptions. By halftime, he’d broken the record.

In the end, Kelce had 11 receptions for 116 yards and a touchdown. He’ll look to continue to build on his playoff record during the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers, the team Jerry Rice made his name with in the NFL.