Travis Kelce Preferred Winning AFC Championship on the Road
The Kansas City Chiefs are the NFL's new road warriors after beating up on the AFC's top two seeds, Buffalo and then Baltimore, to punch their ticket to Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers.
After an inconsistent regular season, Kansas City has once again become the AFC's dominant force; reaching the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five years.
Sunday's 17-10 win over Baltimore was the Chiefs' first road AFC Championship victory, and an extra special moment for star tight end Travis Kelce.
"It just it feels like it's a little bit sweeter man," Travis told his brother, Jason, on Wednesday's episode of New Heights.
Prior to the 27-24 Divisional Round win at Buffalo, the Patrick Mahomes-era Chiefs had never played in a road (non-Super Bowl) playoff game.
"You know, I don't want to rip out anybody's heart in K.C. but this road to where we are now has been more of a challenge, which means you have to overcome more, which it kind of means a little bit more."
The Chiefs finished the season as the AFC West champions with an 11-6 record. Though, the reigning world champs lost three of four between Weeks 13-16, including a 20-14 Christmas Day home loss to the Raiders.
"And although I cherish all the games that I play in Arrowhead, every single one of them baby, this one meant a lot man because, and it meant a lot because the guys we had and how we persevered through a lot of the things that we weren't doing during the season. And it just it just felt that much better with those guys."
Since, Kansas City has five wins in a row and could be the first team since the 2003-04 New England Patriots to go back-to-back.
"You could feel it in the locker room afterwards, feel it on the plane ride home. Typically if you win one at home, you just go straight from the field to your house or to wherever your family is off the field. This one we got to have an entire two-hour flight to ourselves where it was just us partying on the frickin' plane back home."
Kelce personally had reason to celebrate; as he surpassed Jerry Rice for the most postseason catches in NFL history in to an 11-catch, 116-yard, one-touchdown performance.