Here are some of the athletes who could never get away with what Travis Kelce did to Andy Reid at the Super Bowl
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Sports evict emotions, it’s why we love them. And if you’ve ever been on a team, like a real team that was actually good and won something of importance, you understand that things can get heated in the huddle, in the locker room, or at practice. Competition and the will to win aren’t passive traits. But for many, Travis Kelce’s behavior toward Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reird during Super Bowl LVIII crossed a line. And while we may never know what Kelce said to his coach, we do know that there are a ton of athletes who could never get away with that.
“Oh, you guys saw that? Man, it was . . . I’m going to keep that between us unless my mic’d-up tells the world, but I was just telling him how much I love him,” Kelce said when he was asked about berating his coach and almost knocking him over.
“Imma keep it between us. I was just telling him how much I love him.”
“The part I love is he loves to play the game, and he wants to help his team win,” Reid said about the situation. “It’s not a selfish thing, that’s not what it is, and I understand that. And so as much as, you know, he bumps into me, I get after him. And we understand that. He just caught me off balance.”
“He keeps me young. Tested that hip out. He caught me off balance, normally I’d give him a little bit, but I didn’t have any feet under me,” he added.
At this point, TMZ are the only ones who can get the audio to reveal what the interaction was about and what was really said. But for now, all we can do is speculate about what took place on the sidelines. However, what isn’t up for debate is that Kelce got away with it because of his resume, the uniqueness of his relationship with Reid, and how the members of the Chiefs’ dynasty interact with each other.
The only ones who can truly label this situation as fair or foul are the two men who were involved and the players in that locker room. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t understand that there are certain players who could never get away with that, and here’s a list of the five athletes who lead that group.
Draymond Green
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He’s the most polarizing player in the NBA. There’s no middle ground or gray area with Green. You either love and appreciate what he is, or hate him and believe he doesn’t have a place in the league. Green has always been this way, but over the last few years — due to his actions — things have only intensified. To many, he crosses the line with his words, antics, and behavior with teammates and opponents. However, the Golden State Warriors wouldn’t be who they are without him, his absences from suspensions continually prove it. LeBron James, Jordan Poole, Domantas Sabonis, and Jusuf Nurkić have all felt Green’s wrath in some form or fashion over the years. Some think that Green has crossed too many lines. But he’s never been close to the one that Kelce crossed.
Ja Morant
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Close your eyes and imagine an NBA star who is being sued for allegedly punching a teenager, and has been suspended twice in the last 12 months for gun-related incidents, yelling at and bumping Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins during the NBA Finals. If you thought the reaction to Draymond Green would be bad if he did it, people’s heads would explode if Morant was the assailant.
Baker Mayfield
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Maybe it’s all of the commercials. Maybe it’s because certain expectations come with being a No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. Or maybe it’s because Baker Mayfield has done some things in his past that have caused people not to be too fond of him. There was the crotch-grabbing incident when he was in college. The previous legal issues and arrest. Or publicly calling his former head coach, Hue Jackson, “fake.”
“People get maturity confused with me being 100 percent comfortable in my own skin,” he said in 2018. “So that’s absolutely how I am. I’ve always been that way. It’s not immature. It’s me being exactly who I am every day, being that same guy for our team, and I think that’s very important right now.”
Yup. Twitter (X) would have a field day if Mayfield went full Travis Kelce.
Odell Beckham Jr.
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From the blonde hair and the flashy jewelry to his personal life, like everybody else on this list, people tend to feel a way about Odell Beckham Jr. Back in 2016, Beckham had a Kelce-like emotional outburst on the sidelines during a game. The reception from the public compared to Kelce’s have been total opposites.
Ronald Acuña Jr.
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Baseball players and outbursts go hand-in-hand. Especially when a manager or a player gets tossed by an umpire, which could lead to both dugouts and bullpens running onto the field to act like they’re going to fight, but rarely do. In the case of the Atlanta Braves’ franchise player/reigning National League MVP, Ronald Acuña Jr., you might be wondering why he’s on this list, given that he hasn’t done anything close to what the others have. To that, you are correct. But this isn’t just about who you may be, or what people think of your character, it also deals with things you can’t control. This is baseball, and in this sport, a team can freak out and have a “talking to” with a future MVP just because he cocked his hat in a way so that the “A” on the front of it wasn’t visible during an interview. If a franchise in the South in a sport like baseball would do all that over the placement of a hat, imagine what they would do if Acunã Jr. ever cussed out and almost knocked over his skipper in the World Series.