Travis Kelce Yelling At His Boss Is Not A Sign Of 'Passion' — In A 'Normal' Job He Would Have Been Fired
Kelce lost his cool for a moment, but in any other job outside of the professional sports world, that would be unacceptable.
Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock While Super Bowl LVIII was filled with tense moments from beginning to end.
One, in particular, involving Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid during the second quarter, seemed to be a stand-out moment, however.
Kelce, the team's star tight end, seemingly felt the frustration as the Chiefs offense struggled to find their footing during the first quarter, and the NFL player decided to take out his anger on his coach.
Kelce was seen bumping into and yelling directly in the face of his head coach during the Super Bowl.
According to CBS Sports, Kelce was seen hollering at Andy Reid in a sideline argument that was picked up by broadcast cameras. Kelce appeared to grab Reid and yell angrily into his face before the 34-year-old NFL star was pulled away by his teammate, Jerick McKinnon.
Kelce's tirade against his coach came after the Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco lost a fumble deep in 49ers territory. Fans noted that Kelce was not on the field for the play, which could've possibly been the reason for his behavior.
During a postgame press conference, Reid laughed off the moment between him and Kelce following the championship win. The 65-year-old head coach joked that Kelce "keeps me young."
"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," Reid said. He added that Kelce's outburst came from a desire to help his team. "The part I love is that he loves to play the game and he wants to help his team win."
"It's not a selfish thing, that's not what it is, and I understand that. So as much as he bumps into me, I get after him and we understand that."
Kelce also had nothing but praise for Reid during his post-game conference as he opened up about how his coach helped him balance out his emotions. "I got the greatest coach this game has ever seen," Kelce said. "He's unbelievable at not only dialing up plays and having everybody prepared, but he's one of the best leaders of men that I've ever seen in my life."
"And he's helped me a lot with that, with channeling that emotion, with channeling that passion," he continued. "And I owe my entire career to that guy and being able to control how emotional I get and I just love him, man."
Despite both men's attitudes about the incident, Kelce's anger is not a sign of 'passion' — it's grounds for termination.
In any other job, yelling at your boss would be a sign of insubordination. Physically putting your hands on your boss would result in an immediate termination, along with the possibility of legal action being taken as well.
However, instead of any of those repercussions happening to Kelce, he gets to laugh about it during a press conference and go about his day.
Just because he's a famous, well-liked, and well-paid football player doesn't mean he should be above the rules that many of us regular folk who work standard 9 to 5s have to make sure we're following. There's no excuse in the book that Kelce should be allowed to publicly yell at his boss on national television, no matter the circumstances.
At the end of the day, Kelce is an employee, clearly not in the traditional sense of many other working-class adults, but even in the high-pressure world of sports, professionalism should still be expected and respect for your superiors is important in any career. A football player shouldn't be above that.
During the Chiefs Christmas Day match-up with the Las Vegas Raiders, Kelce went viral for hurling his helmet on the ground in the sidelines. Cameras caught Kelce's throw of frustration and Reid talking to the tight end after the outburst, even giving him a shoulder shove.
Kelce addressed the Christmas Day outburst and expressed love for his coach on an episode of the “New Heights” podcast, which he hosts with brother Jason Kelce.
"[Reid] is looking out for me and I love him for it. I didn’t go back out there and play good," he said. "He wanted to see the fire in me and I reacted in a bad way. He wanted to get the best out of me and right now I’m just not playing my best football."
Kelce admitted that he needs to keep a handle on his temper in the future because "as a leader on this team, that’s not how you switch the momentum."
"Every single play is somebody not doing their job, and it’s me — it’s everybody on the team," Kelce admitted. "We’ve got to do something else because it’s been pretty consistent that we haven’t been on the same page. We just got to take a little more ownership in what we’re doing. And I’m not saying that I’m out of this. I’m the main part of this."
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.