One of one; There's nobody like Travis Kelce
One of one; There's nobody like Travis Kelce
The future Hall of Famer once again reminded us why we should never take for granted what he's been, and what he is.
We’re going to stop and a take a moment today.
It’s hard to do that during an NFL season. Every game is wildly important in terms of potential standings and playoff seeding (or just making the playoffs in general), a function of a short season. It feels like by the time we get a few hours removed from the most recent game it’s “on to (opponent X")” and to talking about larger team-oriented narratives. We marvel at a play or player for a moment, then move on to the next thing. Because we’re rooting for the team overall as fans, it’s easy to let individual players get swept away at the speed of life.
But not today. Today, we’re going to stop and a take a moment to really appreciate Travis Kelce, one of the best football players I’ve ever seen.
Kelce scored four touchdowns against the Raiders on Monday night, becoming just the 4th tight end in NFL history to make that happen (and more importantly to Kelce himself, tying the single-game heroics of Al Bundy’s high school greatness).
It’s fitting that this happened on Monday, after a fascinating discourse emerged regarding Kelce and the Ravens’ (very good) tight end Mark Andrews. It was the same story Chiefs fans have heard time and again regarding Kelce over the last decade; A fanbase with a very, very good tight end (or even a great one) claiming that their guy is in fact the guy. This time, the excellent SB Nation site Baltimore Beatdown was, well, beating the drum for Andrews.
We could get into the conversation/debate that ensued (which included someone pointing out that on a per-target basis Kelce has outproduced Andrews even over the last year, by FAR the best of Andrews’ career), but I don’t know that it’s necessary. In fact, I think it’s counterproductive.
What I want to do today is something else. I want to take just a moment and talk about what a rare thing we’re seeing with Kelce, and how last night encapsulated in many ways what makes him the greatest pass-catching tight end I’ve ever seen (with a strong nod to TG for making it close), and how unprecedented he is both in the box score and on the field.