Travis Kelce stands on the brink of going to yet another Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs but one ring he failed to win will stay with him for a long time.
Kelce is renowned across the NFL for his cohesion with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes but the tight end, 35, played with a different quarterback in Alex Smith for the first four seasons of his NFL career.
They failed to win a Super Bowl, however, and Smith was traded by the Chiefs after the 2017 season to the Washington Redskins to make way for the emergence of Mahomes.
Since then, the Chiefs haven’t looked back as Mahomes has led them to three Super Bowl titles. They face the Buffalo Bills on Sunday where victory takes them to next month’s showpiece game in New Orleans, and a win there would make them the first team in NFL history to record a Super Bowl ‘three-peat’.
But Kelce will always rue the fact that he didn’t win a Super Bowl with Smith, such was the quarterback’s influence on him in the early years of his career.
‘I wanted to get a Super Bowl for Alex,’ Kelce said to ESPN. ‘He was such a leader to me, showed me how to do it the right way.
Travis Kelce says he regrets not winning a Super Bowl with Alex Smith, his first quarterbac
Kelce played four seasons with Smith before he was traded to make way for Patrick Mahomes
‘I wanted to go out and get one for him or at least keep fighting for him. I felt guilty I wasn’t able to get one for him.’
Kelce added that even back in 2017 there was great excitement around Mahomes.
The Chiefs took him with the 10th pick of the 2017 Draft and he spent his rookie season as the backup to Smith.
Kelce continued: ‘At the same time, everybody knew what we had in Pat.
‘I was excited about having a new wave of energy and excitement in the offense, a guy with a big arm, a guy that could do it all.’
Speaking last weekend, before the Chiefs beat the Texans to advance to the AFC Championship game against the Bills, Kelce all but said he thinks Mahomes is better than seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady.
‘He’s every bit of a superstar off the field as he is on the field. I consider him family,’ Kelce said. There’s one common denominator from the Chiefs my entire career and that’s Andy Reid, but this thing really took off when Patrick Mahomes got here.
‘I know everybody knows that, but what I see in the building, his leadership, his ability to relate to everybody and motivate everybody, and be accountable, it’s unique, and it’s like nothing else,’ Kelce continued.
‘He’s the greatest to ever do it. You can’t change my mind, otherwise.’
