Super Bowl LVIII champion and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce seems to have used explicit language in a heated exchange with head coach Andy Reid on Sunday — an incident that has since gone viral.
The Chiefs secured a 25-22 victory over the a San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
However, the victory was not without some controversy in the first half.
Kelce approached Reid during the second quarter of Super Bowl LVIII, shouting the choice words at him and then pushing him after being sidelined when Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco lost the ball in a fumble just eight yards away from the end zone.
Travis Kelce looked less than enthused pic.twitter.com/yncKhjtNl4
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 12, 2024
Lip reader Jeremy Freeman told the New York Post that Kelce’s told Reid, “Hey, come on, you f***er, put me on.”
Freeman describes himself as an “experienced and trained expert witness & forensic lip reader ” on his website.
Another lip reader suggested to the U.K.’s Daily Mail that Kelce yelled, “Keep me in. You f***er! I’m calm now!”
Should Kelce have been benched for treating Reid like that?
However, Kelce offered a different perspective during an ESPN “NFL Primetime” interview.
When asked what he shouted at Reid, Kelce told ESPN, “I’m gonna keep it between us,” adding, “I was just telling him how much I love him.”
Reid responded humorously and laughed in a separate interview noting Kelce, “caught me when I wasn’t looking. He didn’t know I was going to go that far,” referring to having his balance thrown off by the push.
National NFL writer for the Athletic Mike Jones posted on X that Kelce later went up to Reid and hugged him and that Reid returned the gesture with a pat on the back.
Reid confirmed this saying, “Then he came over and gave me a hug and said ‘Sorry about that.’ But he just wants to be on the field, and he wants to play. There’s nobody I get better than I get him.”
The incident between Kelce and Reid wasn’t the only highlight of the Super Bowl.
The event also drew attention to Kelce’s budding romance with pop icon Taylor Swift.
Some viewers felt it overshadowed the game itself.
The situation echoes the 2007 media frenzy over pop star Jessica Simpson and Dallas Cowboys then-quarterback Tony Romo’s toxic romance.
During his show “Undisputed” on Fox Sports 1, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported that Skip Bayless blamed Simpson for Romo’s poor performance during their time together.
Bayless said that for Romo, “It was just tumultuous. It was always one thing after another off-the-field. He had to pay too much attention off-the-field, and he was not dedicating himself to the process of playing NFL quarterback.”
