Travis Kelce has gotten off to a slow 2024 start, and if any Chiefs fans want to blame his pop star girlfriend, they’ll be hearing from Whoopi Goldberg.
“The View” panelist spoke on Tuesday’s show about the Chiefs and Kelce, and for any fans that were mad that Taylor Swift may have had anything to do with his pedestrian numbers, Goldberg said she wouldn’t hear anything of it.
“They apparently forgot that they won a Super Bowl last year with [Kelce], and [he and Swift] were just as tight then as they are now,” Goldberg said. “Grow up, y’all. Stop putting this on her. Your team is fine, your team is doing well. Shut up.”
The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs have gotten off to a strong 3-0 start, though Kelce’s receiving numbers have not been where one might expect them to be through this many games.
The tight end has just eight catches on 12 targets for 69 yards.
Kelce, who has scored at least four touchdowns in every full season he has played, not yet found paydirt this season.
Former ESPN analyst Todd McShay is among the pundits who have called out Kelce, with McShay pointing out Kelce’s busy offseason of traveling, in particular.
“Every show I watch, every pregame show, halftime show, postgame show, weekday show, every broadcast I watch for the last few weeks, it’s like are we not allowed to say that he’s out of shape, that he’s been partying all offseason? He’s been jet-setting around with the most famous person probably in the entire world, that’s he drinking, going to the U.S. Open,” McShay said Monday on “The Ryen Russillo Podcast.”
Goldberg, in her mind, doesn’t seem to think that Kelce’s busy life has anything to do with his performance on the field.
“He might have been a little busy, and maybe he’s not 12 anymore. He’s still a valuable player,” she added.
Kelce had four catches for 30 yards in Sunday night’s win over the Falcons, which also included a viral moment in which he appeared dejected on the sidelines.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the win that teams are doing a good job covering Kelce.
“They’re working hard at taking Kelce out of the picture,” Reid said, “and Kelce is going, ‘Hey, listen, if they’re going to do that then Rashee [Rice] is going to get a lot of catches.’ Somewhere that levels off.”
Kelce gets his chance for a breakout against the Saints on Sunday.