I like to watch Pardon The Interruption on ESPN, where 2 sports journalists discuss current events in just about all sports. One of their segments is called “Big Deal, Little Deal, or No Deal?” They introduce some recent event and give their opinions: big, little, or insignificant (no deal). The day after the Super Bowl, I expected to watch them talk about Travis Kelce assaulting his coach on the sideline. That didn’t happen. It wasn’t mentioned.
About 3 minutes into the 2nd quarter, a Chiefs player fumbled the football in the red zone. Change of possession, time out, go to commercials. TV comes back to game, and a couple minutes later, CBS replays what happened on the sideline after the fumble a few minutes ago. Travis Kelce charged Andy Reed (who has a 4 Super Bowl rings) all red-faced and shouting. Kelce actually runs into Reed, who had some difficulty staying on his feet. One of his teammates pulled Kelce away, and Reed did not respond to Kelce at all.
When the Chiefs got the ball back, Kelce was out there on offense. He wasn’t benched. Which surprised me. I thought Reed would tell Kelce to take a seat for a good while. That would have been the minimum punishment, or so I thought.
If I were playing Big Deal, Little Deal, or No Deal, I would say Big Deal. Big no-no for Kelce to assault his coach, publicly showing his disrespect for his coach’s personnel decisions. Big no-no for Reed, allowing his petulant adolescent tight end to undermine the head coach’s authority in such a public and violent way. With no consequences. Big no-no for sports journalism, for not publicly calling out both Kelce and Reed.
It’s been said that Kelce was upset that he hadn’t been on the field when his teammate fumbled, and that Kelce thought he could have helped the running back hold onto the ball. Wah, wah, wah, you hothead crybaby asshole.
That’s what I will remember about this Super Bowl.
