This “nobody believed in us” narrative in sports has gotten out of hand. The New England Patriots championed it before their last Super Bowl win with Tom Brady. Kirby Smart said the same thing of Georgia after the team went back-to-back at the College Football Playoff National Championship. And now, Travis Kelce is trying to peddle the same nonsense.
On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs bested the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl 57. The win is the Chiefs’ second championship in four years, with Kansas City participating in three of the last four Super Bowls. In case you’ve forgotten.
And yet, as the confetti was raining down upon the Chiefs’ celebrations, Kelce couldn’t help but parrot the “no one said we could do it” angle amidst his — admittedly — epic WWE-style postgame interview.
“Not one of y’all said the Chiefs were gonna take it home this year. Not a single one!”
Anddddd the @chiefs took that personally. 🤷♂️
🗣 @tkelce pic.twitter.com/UNkqCAQhWj
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 13, 2023
As expected, the rant drew hilarious comparisons to Georgia and Smart from just one month ago. That being said, it’s laughable to even consider this narrative that the Chiefs are plucky underdogs that no one believed in.
Why? Because Patrick Mahomes exists.
Mahomes is a pretty good quarterback! Perhaps, even, the best in the NFL. After all, Mahomes just gutted out an all-timer of a performance on an injured ankle that he clearly re-injured before the end of the first half. And Mahomes won his second Super Bowl MVP off an incredible effort after he, once again, left it all out there on the football field.
Sure, Kelce’s rant may have been in reference to Fox’s entire NFL crew picking the Eagles to win Super Bowl 57 right before kickoff, but there weren’t an insignificant number of folks that had the Chiefs winning out the night either.
Not only that, before the 2022 schedule reveal, the Chiefs had the third-best Super Bowl odds of all 32 teams. Oh, and if you want to get a head start on the 2024 Super Bowl, it’s not too early to place your bets on the favored Chiefs to repeat next season.
Look, Kelce is a two-time Super Bowl champion so he can say whatever he wants. But that doesn’t mean NFL fans have to buy what he’s selling when he’s got a future Hall of Fame quarterback slinging him touchdowns every week.