Chiefs’ Travis Kelce has never beaten Tom Brady in the playoffs, and he’s well aware
"I think the AFC Championship Game a couple years ago has fueled me."
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For the second year in a row, Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs will need to take down a former New England Patriots quarterback to try to win the Super Bowl.
Last season, Kansas City’s opponent was Jimmy Garoppolo, who had a pretty solid Super Bowl LIV until the fourth quarter when he went 3-for-11 passing with an interception and a fourth-down sack in the Chiefs’ 31-20 victory.
This season, of course, the Chiefs are facing a much more decorated opponent: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tom Brady.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has had some success against Brady over the course of his career: After drafting Kelce in 2013, the Chiefs beat the Patriots four out of five times in the regular season.
But the Chiefs have not beaten Brady in the playoffs with Kelce on the team. In 2015, New England eked out a 27-20 victory as Brady threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns. In 2018 — a game Rob Gronkowski later called his most memorable non-Super Bowl victory — the Patriots claimed an overtime thriller 37-31.
Kelce was asked about his playoff history against Brady and Gronkowski on Monday.
“I’ve never beat Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady in a playoff situation, and I’m very aware of that, and I think the AFC Championship Game a couple years ago has fueled me to be more accountable for my teammates,” Kelce said. “To be better out there on the field when it’s needed the most in the playoffs. And with that being said I feel like this game is another opportunity for me to get a tally on the board in the W column, in trying to get a win in this so-called quote-unquote ‘rivalry’ that the media likes to make it.”
In April, Kelce compared Brady going to Tampa Bay to LeBron James’ decision to join the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I think shock, just like everybody else in the world,” Kelce said at the time, in an appearance on ESPN’s First Take. “I say it’s kind of like LeBron going to L.A., even though he went to Miami first and changed jerseys there. You can’t really imagine it until you actually see Tom Brady in a Bucs jersey down in Tampa playing football, and I still can’t imagine it. We’re just going to have to wait and see how everything plays out in August or September and hopefully we get the ball rolling for football to start here soon, but I was very surprised he would leave the legacy that he had in New England.”
Nearly a year and one trip to the Super Bowl later, presumably, Brady’s decision makes quite a bit more sense.
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