Sometimes one must wonder if certain famous people, on some deep psychological level, recognize their own hopeless insignificance. Otherwise, why would they engage in cringe-worthy public behavior that shows respect neither for themselves nor for others? Why would they knock the pedestal out from beneath their own feet?
Such questions occurred while watching clips from Wednesday’s Super Bowl LVIII victory parade in Kansas City, Missouri, where Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — in an apparently incoherent state of drunkenness — made a mockery of himself, his Super Bowl opponents and the very idea of celebration.
Kelce’s performance, in fact, produced such awkwardness that one local network cut away to a shot of the crowd.
KSHB in Kansas City broadcast the spectacle but did not keep the camera on Kelce the entire time.
When the tight end first took the microphone, he led the exuberant crowd in a brief, moaning-drunken-man’s rendition of the team’s signature, Indian-themed war chant and tomahawk chop. It was decidedly non-woke and thus enjoyable.
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Within seconds, however, Kelce took things in a different direction. He called for someone to cut the music. Then, he asked the crowd to “sing along” to what can only be described as a ghastly version of country-music superstar Garth Brooks’ 1990 smash hit song, “Friends in Low Places.”
In Sunday’s Super Bowl, the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers, 25-22 in overtime. On Wednesday, Kelce changed Brooks’ original lyrics so as to mock the 49ers:
Blame it all on my roots. I showed up in boots. And ruined the Niners’ affair.
The last one to know. We were the last one to show. We were the last one they thought they’d see there.
Should athletes stop getting obscenely drunk at championship parades?
And I saw the surprise. That fear in their eyes. They…we…took that glass of champagne.
And so it continued for 15 more excruciating seconds of slurred, senseless speech.
Finally, after Kelce turned around and said “What?” to no one in particular, quarterback Patrick Mahomes took the microphone and made the best of things by belting out the song’s actual lyrics, albeit less from celebratory enthusiasm than from an apparent attempt to save his teammate.
“I got friends in low places,” Mahomes sang.
Alas, Mahomes handed the microphone back to Kelce, who slurred out a few more words while swaying and then appeared to collapse despite teammates trying to keep him upright.
At that point, the broadcast cut away from the players and focused on the crowd.
Wednesday on the social media platform X, one user posted a clip of that broadcast, including the obvious cutaway.
“Travis Kelce is so wasted that Mahomes has to hold them up, and then he passes out into his players but the broadcast cuts to the crowd to try to protect his reputation. We already know he’s a sloppy, massive drunk,” an accompanying post read.
Travis Kelce is so wasted that Mahomes has to hold them up, and then he passes out into his players but the broadcast cuts to the crowd to try to protect his reputation. We already know he’s a sloppy, massive drunk. #TravisKelce #chiefs #ChiefsDynasty pic.twitter.com/CGqLc39wNp
— COACH G.O.A.T (@JasonJDaniel) February 14, 2024
Wednesday on YouTube, KMBC in Kansas City posted its own broadcast of the scene, which did not include a cutaway.
The KMBC version showed that scene with more clarity. Readers may view it below.
Another X user wrote on Wednesday that “there have been a lot of drunk athletes at championship parades but I honestly think Travis Kelce may be the drunkest I’ve ever seen.”
there have been a lot of drunk athletes at championship parades but I honestly think Travis Kelce may be the drunkest I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/DCfsZxV5G7
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) February 14, 2024
Those other “drunk athletes” apparently included quarterback Tom Brady. In fact, the following video showed Brady being guided through an open gate, unable to stand on his own, at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Super Bowl parade in 2021:
Having never felt the temptation to drink to excess, I have no right to comment on others’ choices or weaknesses. My many vices lay elsewhere.
Instead, I mean only to raise questions about the spectacle of public drunkenness and our reactions to it. In Kelce’s case, I would say revulsion against it.
Notwithstanding centuries of teetotalism — practiced in many parts of the world and endorsed even by some Christians — the Bible does not prohibit alcohol consumption. It does, however, repeatedly warn against intemperance in all forms, including drunkenness.
Still, for some reason, something in our human nature — or perhaps our culture — makes us chuckle at others’ extreme intoxication. Legendary entertainer and comedian Dean Martin, for instance, played drunk for laughs even when sober. Comedian Foster Brooks, though a teetotaler himself later in life, did the same.
It could be that we laugh at temptation and evil primarily when they appear harmless to us. Jewish writer-director Mel Brooks, after all, got big laughs by mocking Nazis in “The Producers,” a film that hit the big screen for the first time in 1967 — more than two decades after the fall of the Third Reich.
In any event, whatever social or psychological factors might shape our immediate reactions to public drunkenness, Kelce’s particular display of it brought no laughs and much pity.
On Sunday, Kelce’s team won the Super Bowl for the third time in five years. As accomplished a player as any tight end in NFL history, he stands at the pinnacle of his profession. And — as the viewing public well knows — he happens to be dating pop-music megastar Taylor Swift.
Why then, in an apparent state of extreme inebriation, did he feel compelled to mock his team’s Super Bowl opponent? And did that unbecoming lack of humility have any connection to recent and very public outbursts of anger?
In a larger sense, too, does collective celebration require the denigration of oneself and others? Is there something in modern culture that associates the spectacle of public drunkenness with having a good time? And if so, would this not qualify as a perversion of joy rather than its authentic expression?
