Travis Kelce being ‘MAN of the PEOPLE’ during Chiefs practice and postgame

Travis Kelce’s Chiefs Teammate Offers Blunt Opinion on the Tight End After Sports Analyst Slams His Game Day Performance

Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs teammates are standing behind the tight end as he faces criticism over his performance during the latest football game against the Atlanta Falcons.

While the Chiefs won the game on Sept. 22, one sports analyst felt like Kelce was “out of shape,” and as a result, not performing as well as he could have. In defense of Kelce, his teammate George Karlaftis told TMZ how hard he works all the time, saying, “I know Travis as a player and as a person, and he hasn’t skipped a beat.”

“He’s a guy that loves football. He’s going to come and work his tail off every single day no matter what,” he went on. “Teams have to respect him. He’s the greatest tight end to ever play, you could argue. Certainly, I think so.”

The criticism originally came from sports analyst Todd McShay, who appeared on The Ryen Russillo Podcast and said that Kelce has been “partying all offseason.”

“He’s been jet-setting around with the most famous person probably in the entire world,” he went on, referring to Kelce’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift. “I want you to take a picture from preseason 2022 and then take a picture preseason 2024, they’re barely the same human being. Here’s the thing, bottom line with Kelce: The coverage and the respect he gets is the same, the athlete is not.”

McShay amended his sharp criticism by saying that he believes Kelce will shape up throughout the season, calling him an “unbelievable competitor,” but he concluded, “He’s not the same guy right now.”

The Chiefs played the Falcons on Sept. 22, winning the game with a score of 22 to 17, but it was a tough fight. Kelce seemed a bit down during the game, with one clip of him looking “depressed” even going viral.

Kelce previously addressed his performance at the start of the season in the Sept. 18 episode of his podcast, New Heights, which he hosts with his older brother, Jason. He didn’t dwell on past mistakes, saying, “For whatever reason, these past two games it hasn’t gone that way for me and that’s football, man. I’m not about to sit here and get frustrated about it.”