Chiefs' Kelce making history

Star tight end once dreamed of hockey glory

How incredibly good has Travis Kelce been this season? The way the Chiefs (131) have cruised through the schedule, their tight end probably isn't getting as much recognition as he deserves.

It's one thing that, against the Falcons in Week 16 on Sunday, Kelce needs just 60 yards to break George Kittle's record (1,377) for a player at the position. No big surprise there.

More impressively, he's also running neck and neck with wide receivers DeAndre Hopkins and Stefon Diggs for the NFL's receiving yards crown. Hopkins has 1,324 yards on 103 catches. Kelce has 1,318 yards on 98 catches. Diggs has 1,314 yards on a league-leading 111 catches.

No tight end has ever finished the season atop the category.

Remarkably, Kelce is also second in the league in yards after catch (YAC). Only Alvin Kamara (720) has more than his 557.

“If you look at history, and you look at the seasons tight ends have had, he's got to have one of the best as far as catching the ball and being a playmaker on offence,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes told ESPN. “That speaks for itself.

“It's truly a special season by a tight end, and not just by a tight end but just a player, a game-changer.”

Kelce's rate of production is increasing as the playoffs draw near.

Five of his six 100-plus yard games this season have come since Week 8.

He has eight or more catches in his last seven games, the longest streak by a tight end since at least 1950, according to NFL Research.

Averaging 94.1 yards per game, he's the only tight end in history with multiple 1,300-yard seasons and the only tight end with five 1,000-yard seasons.

His 98 catches are five shy of his own Chiefs record for a single season, while he needs just two more to become the first tight end in NFL history with 100-plus receptions in multiple seasons.

And Canadians will love this: Growing up in Westlake, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland, Kelce dreamed of one day taking a gulp out of the Stanley Cup.

He played hockey for eight years, and looking back, believes it helped him become a better football player. You don't have to watch Kelce long to see his success stems from his athleticism.

“Being able to get a big body to change directions, I think that's huge,” said Kelce.

“I don't think a lot of tight ends incorporate that enough. I got a lot of that from playing hockey when I was younger, being able to play on the inside and outside of skates, as well as on the basketball court, being able to put my foot into the ground and cross over.

“Just being able to incorporate other sports into my game has definitely helped me out.”

It's fitting to focus on the tight end position heading into a Chiefs-Falcons game, because the most prolific ever split his career between the two teams.

But Tony Gonzalez was 21 as a rookie with Kansas City in 1997 and 37 when he ended his career with the Falcons.

His 15,127 receiving yards, topping the all-time list of tight ends, is probably out of reach for Kelce, who is now 31 and didn't catch his first pass until he was 25 years old.

But at 7,783 yards, and having signed a four-year extension with the Chiefs in the summer, he's going to be working with Mahomes for five more seasons.

That's an average of 1,468 yards before factoring in the final two games of this season.

If the two stay healthy, Gonzalez is definitely within reach.

OUT OF THE HUDDLE: Like the Houston Rockets' James Harden, Dwayne Haskins disputes that he was at a “strip club” as such, explaining that he attended a private birthday party with his girlfriend after last Sunday's loss to the Seahawks.

But in being at a public function without a mask, he still broke COVID-19 protocols, and on Wednesday the Washington QB was fined US$40,000 and stripped of his captaincy by the team.

“I will learn from the mistake and do whatever I can in my power to help this team in a push for a playoff spot,” Haskins, who was fined $4,833 earlier this season by inviting a friend to the team hotel, said in a video.

The team may need him to start against Carolina on Sunday, if Alex Smith's injured calf keeps him sidelined. … JuJu Smith-Schuster doesn't feel he's being disrespectful, but does acknowledge his pre-game ritual has been a distraction, so the Steelers receiver says, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that “for the betterment of myself and my teammates, I'm going to stop dancing on the (opponent's) logos.”

IT'S TRULY A SPECIAL SEASON BY A TIGHT END.