Travis Kelce Celebrates Scoring His First Touchdown of the NFL Season After Admitting to Slow Start
Travis Kelce is back!
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 35, scored his first touchdown of the season on Sunday, Oct. 27 —which happened to be National Tight Ends Day — after previously admitting to having a slow start to the season.
During the Chiefs’ game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Travis caught a touchdown pass in the second quarter of the game during a third-and-goal from quarterback Patrick Mahomes, widening the lead against the Raiders to 14-0 ahead of the second half. The Chiefs ultimately won the matchup, 27-20.
Before Sunday’s touchdown, Travis had gone 12 regular season games without a touchdown catch.
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Ahead of the game, the Ohio native’s career stats were 935 receptions (the fourth-ranking tight end in NFL history) and 11,573 yards. With this latest touchdown, Travis became the fifth tight end to reach 75 career touchdown catches, per the NFL.
Meanwhile, Mahomes, 29, also reached a major milestone in his career. He finished the first half of Sunday’s game 19-of-24 for 192 yards, per NBC Sports, surpassing 30,000 yards.
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Earlier in the season, Travis admitted to having a slow start but remained optimistic. “I used to get really, really pissed off and almost lose my cool,” he said in September on an episode of his and brother Jason Kelce’s podcast, New Heights.
“I just like to play the game to such a high level of accountability that it’s just tough for me to deal with being mediocre or having stats that represent that,” Travis continued.
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“It’s just for whatever reason, these past two games, it hasn’t gone that way for me, and that’s football, man,” he also noted. “I’m not about to sit here and get frustrated about it.”
Going into Week 8, the Chiefs remained the only undefeated team in the NFL. Following their matchup against the Raiders, the team will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday, Nov. 4.
