“He means the world to me”

After Patrick Mahomes once again helped lead the Kansas City Chiefs to a thrilling win on Sunday night, he gushed about his longtime teammate Travis Kelce and what he has meant to him throughout his career.

“He means a lot to me, man,” Mahomes, 29, told reporters after the Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Chargers 19-17 with a last-second field goal on Sunday, Dec. 9. “I mean, without getting emotional, it’s him. “A guy who really made me who I am in my career. He’s someone I can go to at any time and he’ll make a big game happen.”

Mahomes said the 35-year-old Kelce “never wavered in his work ethic” and called him “the hardest-working guy on the team” and predicted the record-setting tight end will end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame when his career is over complete.

“Everyone sees the personality on TV and stuff, but you don’t see his day-to-day work ethic,” Mahomes added. “He’s the type of guy who gets mad when you take him out of training – that’s exactly the type of work ethic he has. Even for me, coming into the league, having a superstar player and seeing him work like that is a way. “It showed me that if I want to get to that level, I have to have that work ethic.

The inspiration has paid off time and time again for Mahomes and Kelce, who have led the Chiefs to back-to-back Super Bowl championships and are top contenders for a third straight NFL title in February.

Mahomes found Kelce late on the team’s final drive Sunday night and put them comfortably within field goal range as time expired, winning their 12th game of the season and securing the AFC West Division Championship. It is the ninth consecutive year that the Chiefs have won the regular season division title, which is the second-most behind Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, who have won the AFC East division title 11 times in a row.

Kelce led the Chiefs again Sunday night with 45 yards on five receptions, surpassing his career’s 12,000 receiving yards and becoming the fastest tight end in NFL history.

Off the field, Mahomes and Kelce – who was best man at Mahomes’ wedding to wife Brittany Mahomes in 2022 – maintained a close friendship as they continued to conquer the NFL.

“He’s just the life of the party,” Mahomes said of Kelce after their first Super Bowl-winning season. “He makes every single person feel like they are the most important person in the world. He has a natural ability to really hug everyone and show them love.”