"Travis Kelce punching everyone" - Eagles' Darius Slay makes a point on Chiefs TE's behaviour in viral video
All is, at first glance, not well within the camp of the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, as Travis Kelce got into an altercation with a teammate during training camp.
On Saturday, multiple local news stations shared this video of the eight-time Pro Bowl tight end exchanging heated words with cornerback Dicaprio Bootle:
pic.twitter.com/PU4I8smM6O
The altercation with Bootle would not be Kelce's last at Chiefs training camp. The next day, after scoring a touchdown, he swung at linebacker Jack Cochrane (video courtesy of Nick Roesch of Chiefs Wire):
Mahomes to Kelce, little chirping after the catch pic.twitter.com/kv56jIyiUH
In response, Eagles cornerback Darius Slay wrote on X (fka Twitter):
"Travis out here punching everyone 😂😂😂 2013 draft class don’t play!!!"
Travis out here punching everyone 😂😂😂 2013 draft class don’t play!!!
Explaining Travis Kelce's unusual behavior at Chiefs camp, and his response
Such overly aggressive behavior is uncommon for Travis Kelce, who is normally one of the more positive figures in football, let alone all of sports. But according to Chiefs insider Pete Sweeney, the weather may have been a huge factor, and he also added that Kelce had also been agitated with a referee:
"As has been mentioned, a heat advisory with the first padded practice made for some grumpy Chiefs, with more extracurricular activity than usual."
As has been mentioned, a heat advisory with the first padded practice made for some grumpy #Chiefs, with more extracurricular activity than usual.
TE Travis Kelce was agitated with a referee early, then CB Dicaprio Bootle later on. From @Jacobs71: twitter.com/Jacobs71/statu…
The tight end later addressed the incidents on his X account:
"Gotta be a better teammate gotta be a better leader… plain and simple."
Gotta be a better teammate gotta be a better leader… plain and simple
Darius Slay claims to have ended animosity with new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia
While Travis Kelce is making headlines for seemingly instigating feuds with teammates, Darius Slay has seemingly ended one of his own.
Heading into 2023, the Eagles hired Matt Patricia as a senior assistant to defensive coordinator Sean Desai. Patricia was Slay's head coach at the Detroit Lions in 2018 and 2019, but tensions between the two led to the cornerback's trade to Philadelphia in 2020.
But if Slay is to be believed, that is all in the past, and he and Patricia are on good terms again. He told the press on Friday:
“We talked about it during the offseason. They called me, and I was like, ‘It’s cool with me because I want to do what’s best for the organization.' I always tell guys, ‘We’re in a rented seat, nobody’s in this seat forever.’ So I said, ‘Y’all got to do what’s best for the organization,' and they asked would I be cool with it, and I said yeah.
“Me and him talked man to man. We’ve got a great understanding. We both want to win, he’s here to help me get better, he wants to get better as a coach, so we’re in good hands right now.”
The Chiefs-Eagles rematch occurs Nov. 20. The game will air on ESPN and ABC.