By Steve Pauwels
Striker Summary: NFL Super Bowl winner Travis Kelce disgraced himself and embarrassed lots of others by his drunken behavior at last week’s Kansas City Chief’s victory parade. Is it fair in 2024 to expect celebrities to enthusiastically celebrate notable achievements without acting like reprobates?
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by Steve Pauwels
Pretty much everyone’s heard about last week’s hideous tragedy which occurred during the Kansas City Chief’s Super Bowl victory parade. As the team’s players, staff and teeming throngs of fans gathered at the city’s Union Station to celebrate, gunfire broke out injuring twenty-two, killing another. A “personal dispute” between two or more individuals is being blamed for the violence.
That atrocity is likely to make observers forget about another less appalling — but still appalling enough — incident that had unfolded very publicly a few minutes previously. If KC tight end Travis Kelce has any sense — increasingly questionable at this point — he might be grateful for that at least.
I’m speaking about the nine-time Pro Bowlers’ on-stage appearance before an estimated one-million attendees and multiplied millions more via broadcast. Weaving and slurring into a booming microphone, Kelce appeared to be so drunk he could barely stand, never mind coherently speak. Reading from his cell phone, he garblingly attempted a rewritten performance of Garth Brook’s 1990 mega-hit “Friends in Low Places”. In the mix, the tweaked lyrics mocked the San Francisco Forty-Niners whom the Chiefs had defeated in overtime, 25-22, three nights before.
Blame it all on my roots. I showed up in boots. And ruined the Niners’ affair./ The last one to know. We were the last one to show. We were the last one they thought they’d see there./ And I saw the surprise. That fear in their eyes. They…we…took that glass of champagne.
Very gallant, Travis …
Seriously … gloating ain’t a good look; not ever — whether it’s a professional football player days after winning the Big Game, or Donald Trump’s mugging for the cameras following an election triumph. It’s always low-rent behavior; graceless, boorish; unflattering. It always sours what it is supposed to be feting. Gloating fueled by a surfeit of alcohol? Even worse. If folks can at least glean that lesson from Kelce’s crassly crapulent debasement of himself that’ll be a plus.
It’s unclear, however, whether Chiefs players and staff drew anything approximating that conclusion from the debacle. Nearly everyone around the swooning Kelce seemed positively tickled by his inebriated antics — including, disappointingly, the squad’s leader and Bible-quoting quarterback.
Patrick Mahomes beamed amusedly as he clamped his arms around his teammate’s waste, propping him up during most of the spectacle. I can’t read what was going on inside the twenty-eight-year-old sensation’s heart and mind, but by all outward indicators Mahomes was rather enjoying the scene.
He might want to brush up on what that Book he reveres so highly has to say about excessive alcohol consumption. Hint: It ain’t favorable. Moreover, considering Mahome’s father’s much-bruited history of alcohol-related woes, one might think the Super Bowl winner would opt for a more … ummm … sober-minded response to public intoxication?
Kelce is undeniably popular. His latest notch is snagging the 2024 People’s Choice Award for “Athlete of the Year” (a month ago he called his nomination “f*cking nonsense” … More of that Kelce class!) The lad has gobs of fans for sure. So, a reminder for all those who’d deem his soused shenanigans acceptable: Legions of impressionable red-gold-and-white-clad little ones were on hand at the rally, observing these jubilating grown ups — with Kelce at the forefront — conducting themselves like louts. Is this really the example we want to set for how to acknowledge life’s grand accomplishments?
When NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley defiantly announced “I am not a role model” in a 1991 Nike promotion (adding that parents should fill that function), he was on to something — but only partially. The inconvenient reality is people are shaped by a multiplicity of influences; some beneficial, some detrimental. Mom and Dad? Of course they play their part. But professional athletes, pop culture figures and other high-profile types also, plainly, figure among these impacts. And Travis Kelce’s recent, ostentatious paean to alcoholism? Yeah, that too.
“In this world,” Spider Man mournfully realized nearly six decades ago, “with great power must also come great responsibility,” Someone much realer and greater echoed similar sentiments nineteen-hundred years before that when he taught, “Too whom much is given, much will be required.” (Luke 12: 48)
For this reason, among others, the entire Kelce episode was inappropriate and unfortunate; gross in fact. I’ll reference the late, occasionally notorious, G. Gordon Liddy who used to routinely excoriate drunkenness by saying: “There’s a reason they call it ‘getting stupid’!”
“Getting Stupid” Exhibit A? Travis Kelce.
Pairing this ugly moment with tspasmodic sideline eruption during Sunday Night’s much-anticipated contest– technically, Kelce assaulted Head Coach Andy Reid — it would appear the thirty-four-year-old has a self-control problem. (To his credit, Kelce has since admitted he “crossed a line” with Reid, and essentially apologized.)
So, what does Mrs. Kelce — his mother — think about all this? As you’d expect, she conspicuously follows her boy’s career. I’m going to assume Momma was audience to the rally. She can’t be terribly thrilled with the boozy buffoonery on display.
How about Kelce’s globe-hopping girlfriend? Are any misgivings lurking in Taylor Swift’s song-writing heart about committing herself to a guy who unreservedly comports himself this way in front of the whole world? If she doesn’t want this relationship to become the subject of yet another of her renowned break-up ballads, the multi-award-winning chanteuse might want to give this some reflection. Maybe have a talk with him?
As for God’s opinion on this misadventure (and Whose “opinion” is weightier? Whose input matters more than His?): In the Creator’s assessment, the most impressive human beings are those who have a leash on their emotions, desires, habits. “He who rules his spirit, [is better] than he who captures a city.” (Proverbs 16:32) And presumably “better than” he who succeeds in business, excels artistically, attracts mountains of fame. “Better than” he who catches a football.
Next season is dangling before Travis Kelce hope for what would be an unprecedented third Super Bowl Ring in a row. It offers one other, arguably more significant opportunity: that the guy can enjoy career heights without getting loaded, without beclowning himself; demonstrating a dash of dignity.
Maybe society ought to throw a parade for that?
The views here are those of the author and not necessarily Striker Journal.
Image: Screen Shot: KCTV5; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13087483/travis-kelce-slammed-party-kansas-city-chiefs-parade-shooting.html
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