The tale of the Chiefs’ roller-coaster offseason because the trip for a Tremendous Bowl three-peat starts

The tale of the Chiefs’ roller-coaster offseason because the trip for a Tremendous Bowl three-peat starts

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mins upcoming celebrating their park in NFL historical past, they had been scrambling in terror.

Each and every well-known member of the Kansas Town Chiefs — Andy Reid and his training team of workers, common supervisor Brett Veach, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight finish Travis Kelce and their teammates — left the level in entrance of Union Station and headed again into the magnificent corridor. It used to be town’s parade to honor their Tremendous Bowl LVIII victory, the primary NFL staff to effectively cover a championship in virtually 20 years.

Mins then gunshots sounded; the staff and the 1000’s of lovers celebrating on an unseasonably heat Valentine’s Future had been plunged into chaos.

The 66-year-old Reid and a trio of avid gamers — operating again Clyde Edwards-Helaire, proper cover Trey Smith and lengthy snapper James Winchester — had been amongst those that ran towards kids right through the gunfire and attempted to reassurance the ones round them. In line with a regulation enforcement supply, granted anonymity for this tale as a result of he doesn’t have permission to talk publicly at the taking pictures, at one level police idea there used to be a shooter within Union Station, the place Chiefs body of workers, coaches, avid gamers and their households had run for safeguard.

“I went to my grandkids and my family, like, Where are they?!” Reid stated two weeks upcoming the taking pictures. “Your instincts take over.”

Edwards-Helaire, who has a name as one of the vital Chiefs’ maximum jovial avid gamers, had his common offseason coaching halted a number of occasions generation he handled post-traumatic tension illness, a status he has grappled with since fatally taking pictures a person making an attempt to rob him in 2018; the parade taking pictures worsened his unpleasant nervousness.

When the photographs after all restrained, 22 sufferers — part of them beneath the presen of 16 — had been wounded and one individual, Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a disc jockey at Kansas Town radio station KKFI and mom of 2, used to be lifeless. The taking pictures stemmed from a dispute between a number of population, two of whom had been beneath the presen of 18 after they had been detained by means of the Kansas Town Police Segment.

That severe scene used to be how the Chiefs’ offseason started. It slightly calmed indisposed over the upcoming six months: a emerging celebrity turned into embroiled in prison problems stemming from a high-speed collision, a occasion Corridor of Famer battled date and the scrutiny that incorporates relationship the arena’s most famed girl, their kicker thrust himself into the tradition wars and a 25-year-old teammate virtually died on the staff’s coaching facility.

Initiation Thursday night time towards the Baltimore Ravens, Chiefs avid gamers, coaches and entrance place of work participants will spend the upcoming 5 months seeking to accomplish an unheard of feat: Win a 3rd consecutive Tremendous Bowl. However first, they needed to bear an offseason not like any alternative.


Rashee Rice’s leased Lamborghini SUV used to be drawing near 120 miles consistent with past on a Dallas freeway. He used to be a part of a late-afternoon drag race on a hectic stretch of the Central Freeway and, as he attempted to weave thru site visitors, he slammed right into a hatchback touring within the left lane, surroundings off a series response. The hatchback careened into the cloudy Corvette that Rice used to be racing, sending the Corvette right into a minivan earlier than crashing right into a preserving wall at the alternative aspect of the street. The minivan and a white SUV had been despatched spinning within the middle lane. Finally, six automobiles had been concerned. Within the fast aftermath, Rice and 4 of his pals exited the 2 automobiles, made their solution to the breakdown lane and went away earlier than police arrived, resignation at the back of the collision’s sufferers, baffled onlookers and two mangled luxurious automobiles.

The March 30 collision concerned Teddy Knox, a former SMU teammate of Rice who used to be the motive force of the cloudy Corvette. Two drivers of alternative automobiles had been handled on the scene for minor accidents, and two occupants of some other automobile had been taken to the health facility with minor accidents.

On April 11, Rice grew to become himself in on the Glenn Heights (Texas) Police Segment upcoming the Dallas PD issued an arrest warrant. Information confirmed Rice, who used to be booked and immune on a $40,000 bond, is going through one depend of annoyed attack, one depend of clash involving severe physically shock and 6 counts of clash involving shock, even if a tribulation year has but to be i’m ready. Two collision sufferers, Irina Gromova and Edvard Petrovskiy, are suing Rice and Knox for greater than $10 million; a tribulation is ready to start out upcoming June.

Rice made his first people feedback concerning the collision thru an Instagram tale put up: “I take full responsibility for my part in this matter and will continue to cooperate with the necessary authorities. I sincerely apologize to everyone impacted in Saturday’s accident.”

Lower than a time upcoming turning himself in to the police, Rice returned to paintings, collaborating in each and every facet of the Chiefs’ offseason program. Throughout coaching camp, he declined to percentage if he have been interviewed by means of commissioner Roger Goodell or any individual else from the league.

“The main thing for me is being able to be the best person I can be for my team so we can all come together and dominate,” Rice stated in early August. “I’m just continuing to surround myself with the people I want to be like and continuing to surround myself with people who are going to allow me to grow to become a better person on and off the field. I’m going to continue to grow.”

Brian McCarthy, a league spokesman, stated in a information video convention extreme time that Rice wouldn’t be positioned at the league’s commissioner’s excused checklist — which permits the league to take away a participant going through criminal fees from the taking part in discipline and hurry that disciplinary choice clear of the staff — “unless there is a material change in the case.”

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Since Reid turned into their head educator in 2013, the Chiefs had been prepared in order in avid gamers with a historical past of off-the-field transgressions. That used to be true of Rice, who used to be taken off a minimum of 3 groups’ draft forums because of personality considerations, in keeping with league assets, earlier than Kansas Town moved up 9 spots to make a choice him in the second one spherical of the 2023 draft.

A ordinary false impression is that Reid’s Chiefs make use of a leave, fun-all-the-time tradition. In fact, Reid runs one of the crucial bodily coaching camps within the NFL they usually guard the ones grueling apply conduct all over the season. Reid has realized to micromanage much less, however change out sleeveless hoodies for Tommy Bahama shirts — and Tom Brady for Mahomes — and you have got a company that has a lot more in ordinary with the Patriot Method than maximum outsiders assume. And indistinguishable to Fresh England, the profitable encourages avid gamers to shop for in.

“They trust their infrastructure,” a rival GM stated. “(Reid) can handle just about anything and make sure the leadership is strong to absorb those players. … Talent is a premium, for sure, and figuring out where to draw the line can definitely be taxing on the assistants. Bill (Belichick) was the same way. It’s all about risk tolerance and at what cost.”

Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice (4) attends the second day of mandatory mini-camp practice at the Chiefs training complex on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Kansas City.


Regardless of a troubling offseason, the Chiefs nonetheless have extraordinarily lofty expectancies for Rashee Rice. (Emily Curiel / Kansas Town Megastar / Tribune Information Provider / Getty Photographs)

Only a few weeks earlier than the collision, Rice used to be in Citadel Usefulness, Texas, coaching along Mahomes and Marquise Brown, the Chiefs’ latest veteran receiver. Mahomes, who spent a portion of his early life in a Main League Baseball clubhouse, understands the wish to importance his resonance to criticize Rice in a fashion that’s not only punitive.

“There’s going to be punishments and stuff that they’re going to have to deal with,” Mahomes stated of Rice extreme presen. “But when you’re a guy on the team, you’re kind of like an older brother to the guy. You want to bring him up as best you can.

“Obviously, they know they’ve made mistakes. They own up to them. But at the same time, how are we going to be better now? How can you learn from that mistake and not make that same mistake again? That’s what you’re doing in every aspect of life, not just football.”

The Chiefs have a possible celebrity in Rice. As a rookie extreme season he used to be the Chiefs’ perfect receiver, recording 79 receptions for 938 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns. In keeping with his on-field efficiency this summer season, the 24-year-old is predicted not to simply develop on that good fortune in 2024 however doubtlessly determine himself as one of the vital NFL’s elite receivers. The Chiefs have proved, within the trim time period, they may be able to win with out superior receiver play games. For the longer term, Rice might be the solution to one of the vital questions looming over the franchise: Who will change into Mahomes’ upcoming go-to goal? Nearest all, Kelce can not play games ceaselessly.


Kelce used to be emotional, virtually choking up at one level right through the trim social-media video directed towards Chiefs lovers. He thanked them for his or her help and reminisced about when he arrived in Kansas Town. It used to be April 29, the Monday upcoming the NFL Draft, and the tight finish had simply signed a two-year oath extension.

The inside track used to be vital for 2 causes: It made him the NFL’s highest-paid tight finish for the primary date in his occupation; and it used to be the primary people indication of what Kelce, who might be 35 in October, informed Reid and Veach earlier than signing the trade in: He thinks he has a minimum of two extra just right years left.

Kelce plans to support the franchise proceed its good fortune for no less than a pair extra seasons at the same time as his repute on this planet outdoor soccer grows exponentially upcoming, extreme fall, his courting with pop celebrity Taylor Speedy turned into people.

“I love playing in the NFL,” Kelce stated in June. “This will always be my main focus. But outside of that, football ends for everybody, so (I’m) kind of dipping my toes in the water and seeing what (I) like in different areas and different career fields. I think the offseason is the best chance you can get to try and explore that and set yourself up for after football.”

Kelce spent a lot of the offseason in Los Angeles, his first step towards the performing occupation he plans to pursue upcoming soccer. His first alternative used to be within the spring; actress/comic Niecy Nash-Betts noticeable in early Might that Kelce can be guest-starring along her, in an unspecified function, in “Grotesquerie,” an FX horror and drama display. Comic and actor Adam Sandler shared extreme presen that Kelce will play games a supporting function within the much-anticipated “Happy Gilmore 2.” Kelce additionally flew to Europe a number of occasions — London, Dublin and plenty of alternative towns — to wait as a lot of Speedy’s live shows as conceivable, persistently stunned on the increasing choice of Chiefs jerseys he noticed in every town.

Kelce’s era modified extreme season when he started relationship Speedy. His weekly podcast together with his brother, Jason, “New Heights,” turned into one of the vital medium’s fastest-growing displays. Travis’s social media fans grew by means of greater than 400,000. In not up to a time, his Negative. 87 jersey rose to the govern 5 in NFL gross sales, in keeping with Fans.

Kelce’s era additionally modified in much less fascinating tactics. For example, as paparazzi descended on his suburban house, he realized the parched method that relationship the arena’s most famed girl calls for a gated population; he moved in November.

In 2023, the Chiefs turned into the 3rd staff in NFL historical past to play games 21 regular- and postseason video games in one season. Within the first six years of the Mahomes future, the Chiefs performed an unequalled 18 postseason video games, for a complete of 117 video games right through that span; Kelce performed in all however 4 of them. And but, the Chiefs aren’t apprehensive about Kelce doubtlessly slowing indisposed. As he adopted Speedy’s Eras Excursion around the globe this summer season, Kelce introduced a miniature staff of running shoes along side him. The arena noticed his awe on-stage look as a performer right through Speedy’s late-June display at London’s Wembley Stadium, however few noticed the full-time soccer paintings he persisted to position in generation in a foreign country. And, Ecu excursions and performing gigs apart, he didn’t omit a unmarried Chiefs exercise this summer season, necessary or voluntary.

It may not be TB12, however the ones within the Chiefs construction say Kelce is obsessive about frame upkeep. It’s cliché to insist that your perfect avid gamers are your toughest staff, however even Veach used to be stunned when, on his method out the door on Monday — upcoming the staff’s toughest apply of the time — he noticed his All-Professional tight finish doing band paintings in an differently unoccupied weight room at 9 p.m.

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There’s refuse uncertainty that Kelce nonetheless has each ft within the soccer international, identical to there’s refuse uncertainty that Speedy is absolutely embracing her Chiefs fandom. It did, on the other hand, hurry everybody concerned a modest little bit of date to seek out the rhythm to this dance.

For example, Speedy made her first look at Arrowhead Stadium extreme September. The lasting symbol of an differently forgettable blowout victory over the Chicago Bears: When Kelce stuck a 3-yard landing to stretch the govern to 41-0, cameras stuck Speedy leaping, cheering and shouting 3 phrases: Let’s f—ing pass!

Earlier than the Chiefs’ attic room used to be opened upcoming the sport, avid gamers had been requested not to speak about Speedy with journalists, a request from Kelce that resulted in awkward interactions between avid gamers and journalists order one of the vital sport’s largest storylines.

“It’s crazy that someone was at a football game, right?” defensive finish George Karlaftis stated, smiling, based on a query about Speedy. “I don’t know what you guys want. I’m happy for him.”

That time introduced a unutilized more or less tension for the Chiefs’ safety operation, which needed to coordinate with Speedy’s staff for her barricade access into and go from the stadium. With the sport winding indisposed within the fourth quarter, safety put its actual plan into movement, ushering Speedy out to a gathering level with Kelce. Most effective, Speedy had a special thought: She sought after to observe the tip of her boyfriend’s sport. That intended plans needed to trade at the fly. In the end, the safety component had Speedy wait within the suite upcoming the sport till Kelce used to be able to fulfill her there. The couple then exited Arrowhead as though they had been the homecoming king and queen, using downtown in his burgundy convertible. Their first people year befell at Top Social within the town’s Nation Membership Plaza branch, an evening when greater than a 3rd of Kelce’s teammates joined the collection with Speedy’s pals.

At a convention the upcoming time, Kunal Tanna, Veach’s worker, made the common rounds, asking the ones in every place room if that they had any music calls for that time’s exercise. That’s how considered one of Speedy’s songs made it onto the playlist, making for a sunny month right through apply. Mahomes approached Tanna. “That was really funny,” he stated, earlier than including, “don’t ever do it again” — a message for Tanna, and for the staff, that outdoor noise remains outdoor the apply discipline.

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Speedy used to be studying a unutilized international as smartly. She attended her first highway sport a time then, a Sunday nighter towards the Fresh York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J. When Speedy arrived at MetLife Stadium, instead than being greeted by means of a rowdy folk of paparazzi, it used to be a number of sports activities reporters, as well mannered as they had been undecided of what to do. “It’s so quiet in here,” Speedy stated upcoming exiting her automobile; she nearest had a anticipation to benefit from the most likely unfamiliar tone of her personal footsteps echoing as she made her method throughout the tunnel.

Speedy persisted attending video games, and because the season improved, the rhythm turned into extra usual for everybody concerned. The group embraced her presence. She used to be at the discipline upcoming to Kelce simply mins upcoming the Chiefs received the AFC Championship Recreation in Baltimore. A lot to the awe of with regards to everybody, she used to be at the discipline within the chaotic moments upcoming Tremendous Bowl LVIII. (For the ones questioning, she might be in attendance for Thursday night time’s season opener towards the Ravens.)

A Kansas City Chiefs fan holds a campaign sign for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce in the stands prior to an NFL preseason football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium on August 10, 2024 in Jacksonville, Florida.


This used to be the one signal of Taylor Speedy this preseason, however issues must be other on Thursday night time. (Kevin Sabitus / Getty Photographs)

Even with Mahomes, on a trajectory to change into the best participant in NFL historical past, as their chief, nobody has generated extra certain buzz for the Chiefs than Kelce. When 32 avid gamers took the level in entrance of the Rose Farmland with President Joe Biden in past due Might, it used to be Kelce who used to be given the chance to step into the highlight.

Nearest a call for participation from the president, Kelce joined Biden on the lectern: “My fellow Americans, it’s nice to see you all again… I’m not gonna lie, President Biden, they told me if I came up here I’d get tased, so I’m gonna go back to my spot.”

The rite ended with proprietor Clark Hunt and Reid presenting Biden with the present of a Chiefs helmet that featured 3 autographs in cloudy marker, from Reid, Veach and staff president Mark Donovan. When there used to be a idleness right through a photograph opp, Kelce led a gaggle of avid gamers encouraging Biden to position the helmet on.

Biden obliged. There have been i appreciate it and laughter. Even kicker Harrison Butker, stoic within the govern row for many of the rite, couldn’t support however break a grin.


Chatting with a packed gym in Atchison, Kan., on Might 11, Butker’s deal with to Benedictine School’s Magnificence of 2024 began the best way maximum graduation speeches do: He congratulated the graduates. Not anything else he stated over the upcoming 20 mins used to be familiar.

The 28-year-old kicker referred to Satisfaction Hour, the occasions in June demonstrating inclusivity and help for the LGBTQ+ population, an illustration of the “deadly sins,” as he advocated for a extra conservative emblem of Catholicism. He criticized Biden on a number of problems, together with abortion and the dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic, even wondering Biden’s non-public prayer to Catholicism. Addressing a category that incorporated loads of ladies, Butker stated a girl’s maximum remarkable name is “homemaker.”

“It is you, the women, who have had the most diabolic lies told to you,” Butker informed them. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

Hours upcoming the accent used to be posted to YouTube, the backlash started. GLAAD, a non-profit LGBTQ advocacy group, denounced the accent. So did the series of nuns affiliated with Benedictine School. Jokes began rolling in. On the 2024 ESPY Awards, which Butker attended, tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams mentioned the yr in girls’s sports activities onstage with “Abbott Elementary” celebrity Quinta Brunson. Venus informed the target market to “go ahead and enjoy women’s sports, like you would any other sports, because they are sports.”

Serena added the punchline: “Except you, Harrison Butker. We don’t need you.”

“At all. Like, ever,” Brunson added.

There have been additionally those that rallied in help of Butker. Inside of a time of the accent, the ladies’s model of Butker’s jersey used to be out of reserve within the reliable Chiefs Professional Store, and his males’s jersey used to be indexed some of the govern dealers on NFLshop.com. A fan made a immense check in help of Butker, hanging it along the freeway related Missouri Western Atmosphere’s campus, the place the Chiefs held coaching camp: “Thank you Harrison Butker for having the courage to speak the truth.”

The NFL immune a observation distancing itself from Butker’s feedback, announcing his perspectives aren’t the ones of the league. Mahomes and Kelce expressed their war of words with Butker’s feedback, too, however voiced their admire for him as a teammate.

Within the days upcoming Butker’s accent, the ones in Chiefs management felt all they may do used to be wait to look what took place when Butker returned for OTAs. They had been stunned, now not most effective by means of the quantity of consideration the accent drew however that Butker had yes to assemble a accent in any respect. Future the Chiefs know Butker is devoutly spiritual, he hasn’t ever been particularly competitive in sharing his ideals. For Butker’s phase, when Benedictine School requested him to be its graduation speaker simply days upcoming Tremendous Bowl LVIII, he first of all declined earlier than reconsidering.

“I try to protect my privacy as much as possible, but I’ve been in the league seven years and I do have a platform,” Butker stated. “With that comes people who want me to state what I believe to be very important.”

All optical had been on Butker, and his interactions together with his teammates, on that first time again within the attic room. He did crossword puzzles within the coaching room with one of the crucial defensive linemen. He chatted with alternative teammates. And for the Chiefs, it gave the impression sunny that, generation this used to be an understandably fat factor outdoor their facility, it wasn’t getting to be a disorder within it.

“Ever since that speech, there’s been tons of conversations in the locker room, guys connecting and trying to understand each other,” Butker stated. “It’s been a beautiful thing to see. That’s what’s so special about sports. There’s not many sports where you have 50 to 100 guys with a bunch of different beliefs and we’re all fighting together to win.”


Sitting in a different groups assembly on June 6, Butker heard a commotion at the back of him. After he felt the jolt of any individual kicking his chair. “I turned around,” Butker stated, “and B.J. wasn’t doing well.”

The kicker sprinted out of the assembly room and to the Chiefs’ coaching room, alerting worker running shoes Julie Frymyer and David Glover. Through that time, B.J. Thompson, a 25-year-old defensive finish, used to be within the throes of a seizure.

Inside of mins, vice chairman of sports activities drugs and function Rick Burkholder and his team of workers — Frymyer, Glover, Tiffany Morton and Evan Craft — and Dr. Jean-Philippe E Darche, a former middle who performed 9 seasons within the NFL, labored in combination to resuscitate Thompson, who fell to the ground upcoming going into cardiac arrest. He used to be taken by means of ambulance to the College of Kansas Clinical Middle and used to be put on a ventilator beneath bulky sedation.

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The NFL calls for each and every staff to apply its crisis motion plan earlier than each and every sport and right through the workweek at its coaching facility.

“We practiced on (that) Monday with a group called Walters Incorporated, who comes in and educates us and goes through scenarios like we went through,” Burkholder stated.

Thompson aroused from sleep in a solid status and used to be responsive inside of 24 hours. A time upcoming being immune from the health facility, he rejoined his teammates, making his first people look for the Chiefs’ Tremendous Bowl ring rite on the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Artwork in Kansas Town.

Thompson, a second-year participant who used to be decided on within the 5th spherical of the 2023 draft, used to be operating to give a contribution as a job participant on protection and particular groups upcoming showing in most effective the regular-season finale as a rookie. Nearest his reduce from the health facility, he spent a number of days gazing apply. He’ll get started this season at the non-football shock checklist, which can give him extra date to pass thru a number of clinical opinions earlier than he may also be cleared to take part in soccer actions once more. Reid stated Thompson may just go back to the apply discipline as early as November.


The Chiefs’ offseason drama prolonged past their soccer operations. Two weeks upcoming the parade taking pictures, Hunt spoke publicly at a information convention within Arrowhead concerning the occasion of the 52-year-old venue. The Chiefs unveiled renderings of what they was hoping will be the upcoming main renovations — adjustments incorporated enhanced suites, video forums and membership lounges. The renovations had been projected to price $800 million; Hunt stated he and his nation would give a contribution $300 million.

Throughout the inside track convention, the NFL Gamers Affiliation immune the findings of its moment annual survey, team-by-team file playing cards that assess avid gamers’ operating statuses and environments. The Chiefs ranked thirty first some of the NFL’s 32 groups. The unholy information saved coming when, a presen then, citizens in Jackson County, Mo., unwelcome an extension of the three-eighths-cent gross sales tax on a poll initiative that will have funded stadium renovations for the Chiefs and Kansas Town Royals. The margin of defeat used to be overwhelming: 58 % voted refuse.

None of that restrained Hunt from making an investment within the on-field product. He signed Reid, Veach and Donovan to oath extensions throughout the 2029 season, with Reid incomes $25 million consistent with yr, changing into the league’s highest-paid educator. Having already signed Mahomes to the longest oath within the league (which runs throughout the 2031 season), Hunt licensed Veach and Reid to signal Kelce, Butker, move rusher Chris Jones and middle Creed Humphrey to unutilized trade in, every one changing into the highest-paid participant at their place. If the Chiefs fall trim of a three-peat, it received’t be since the group didn’t spend money on its after challenge.

Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs reacts after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 during Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.


As he left the discipline upcoming Tremendous Bowl LVIII, there used to be something on Travis Kelce’s thoughts. (Jamie Squire/Getty Photographs)

The Chiefs continued an offseason that required distinctive resilience. Possibly probably the most significant signal of that resilience got here now not within the days or months, however the mins upcoming Tremendous Bowl LVIII in February. Kelce, exhausted upcoming the additional time victory that ended the longest season of his occupation, took a month to praise at the discipline.

After, right through an extended, sluggish proceed again to the attic room, he delivered a easy message: “We’re doing this again next year.”

(Manage footage, left to proper: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Photographs; Courtney Culbreath / Getty Photographs; Michael Owens / AP)

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