Travis Kelce Calls Out Critics of Chiefs' Skill Players in NSFW Rant

Travis Kelce is tired of hearing his teammates criticized in the media.

In the latest episode of the "New Heights" podcast with his brother Jason, Travis sent a strong message to critics of the skill position players on his team.

"I know there's a lot of media pointing fingers at some of the skill players we have," Travis said. "I say, 'F*** that.'"

Travis in particular often curses on the podcast, so much so that the brothers incorporated a swear jar for charitable donations. On the episode that aired Wednesday, he acknowledged that tendency while continuing to call out critical members of the media.

"Excuse my language," he said. "We usually cuss in light-hearted ways, but I felt like you guys had to feel that, whoever is talking s*** on the skill players in our offense right now."

Travis added that the Chiefs' struggles are "a group effort."

"What's real is we got guys that can play this game, and we've got guys that we can have success with, and win with, and win championships with," he said. "I know it. I've been on championship-caliber teams. ... I just wanted to make sure that Chiefs Kingdom, everybody knows that we have everybody we need, and we're going to get it fixed, man."

The defending Super Bowl champions are 8-5, but they have come under fire recently, given their recent cold stretch. After starting the season 7-2, they have lost three of their last four games and two in a row.

The most recent loss was a tough 20-17 contest against the Buffalo Bills, which nearly culminated in one of the most dramatic plays of the NFL season so far. With just over a minute remaining, Patrick Mahomes dropped back and fired a pass to Travis who caught it well within field-goal range.

Travis—who Mahomes has previously said reads defenses "almost like he's playing Madden"—saw a number of things at once, which he outlined for Jason on the podcast. He knew he had broken the defense's "containment angle." He also knew Kadarius Toney's defender was closing in, and he knew Toney was level with him in lateral position, given the route he was supposed to run.

So rather than absorbing the tackle in field-goal territory, Kelce fired a lateral pass across the field to Toney, who caught it and sprinted the end zone for what looked like the go-ahead touchdown. A flag had been thrown at the line of scrimmage, however, and officials ruled that Toney was lined up offsides prior to the snap.

Still: "Insane creativity," Jason marveled, of his brother's lateral.

Jason also asked what Chiefs coach Andy Reid thought of the moment. Travis said he didn't speak to Reid.

"Dude, in retrospect, can you imagine if that got tipped?" Travis said, sounding horrified at the thought. "... F***, I could just see Coach Reid in my head, like, 'Come here.'"

"It was close," he added. "When it left my hand, I thought it got tipped. It was close. So you probably won't see me doing that every single game."

Travis added that he spoke to Toney at practice about how close the two came to pulling off an iconic NFL play.

"All this I hear in the media right now about who the Chiefs are, it's only building that beast that we've been trying to create this entire year," he said. "And it's only going to keep making us better and better going through these learning experiences and going through these tough games."

The Chiefs take on the Patriots on Sunday at 1 p.m.