Patrick Mahomes reveals Travis Kelce had to be taken out of Chiefs practices earlier in the season to ‘let his body heal’ amid injury fears… as he heaps praise on the tight end for the ‘energy’ he puts in behind the scenes: ‘People don’t even see it’
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes opened up about the energy that Travis Kelce brings to the team during practice and his dedication to preparing each week. Mahomes spoke to press just days before he and his team are set to jet off to Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII.
In a press conference, he heaped praise on his teammate and favorite target – saying that his dedication raised the level of other Chiefs players. ‘He brings a ton [of energy]. People don’t even see it at practice. I mean, the energy that he has,’ Mahomes explained. ‘He wants to take every single rep. We have to get him out of practice just to give him a rest, and he wants to be out there for every single play.
And I think that mindset… when you see the [future] Hall-of-Fame tight end and he wants to be the guy working the hardest, it raises everybody’s standard. ‘It raises the standard of how you practice. It raises the standards of how you prepare. Because, you know, that guy that’s done it at the top level wants to continue to do it every single week, every single day.
And at the same time, he has a great time doing it. And I think that shows that you can work extremely hard and still have fun coming to work every single day.’ Mahomes also talked about the start of the season – when the tight end was dealing with an injury to his ankle that led to him missing the first game of the season. ‘There was times throughout the season where we had to take him out,’ Mahomes revealed. ‘I mean, he didn’t want to, but we had to get him out to let his body heal.
‘And it wasn’t like his mind wasn’t there, but you could just see his body – it wasn’t moving the way that it always moves. I think just having that rest, and… more time from when the original injuries kind of happened, you could see now his body was getting back, and we felt really good going in, even to that Cincy game…. and going into the last week and getting that rest and coming into playoffs. ‘You could tell his body was getting back to the true Travis Kelce, and so it was definitely good for him. And hopefully we can keep that thing rolling, not just this game, but in the future years as well.’
