Travis Kelce celebrates National Tight Ends Day by continuing to haunt Raiders and setting NFL record
Of course Travis Kelce’s first touchdown of the season came on National Tight Ends Day.
The score came when Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes found Kelce in the end zone on a third and goal with just under two minutes to go in the second quarter of Kansas City’s 27-20 win against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.
Incredibly, it was the three-time Super Bowl’s first TD of the season. Rather aptly, it came against a bitter division rival on the day the NFL celebrates the game’s tight end position.
Kelce became just the fifth tight end in NFL history to hit 75 receiving touchdowns and moved solely into fifth place for career TDs by a tight end, breaking a tie with Jason Witten.
He finished the game with 90 yards on ten receptions for one touchdown.
Kelce loves playing against the Raiders and continued to haunt them throughout the first half.
After catching a pass from Mahomes, who set his own history on Sunday, on a second and two in the second quarter, Kelce took the outright lead for most receptions all-time against the Raiders.
It gave him 115 receptions against the Black & Silver all-time, one more than fellow TE and franchise legend Tony Gonzalez.
Antonio Gates (111) and Keenan Allen (106) are third and fourth on the list respectively for most receptions against Las Vegas.
Kelce finished the contest with 124 career receptions against the Raiders.
National Tight Ends Day is a holiday that originated in 2018, and celebrates stars like Kelce and San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle.
Kittle is one of the players who came up with the idea after another San Francisco tight end, Garrett Celek, caught a touchdown pass from Jimmy Garrapolo in Week 2 of that NFL season.
“I was like, ‘yeah, it’s National Tight Ends Day. It’s a holiday. Tight ends all over the league are scoring touchdowns,’” Kittle said. “That’s how it came to be. We just kind of rolled with it.”
The idea stuck and now every NFL season, the fourth Sunday of October is celebrated as National Tight Ends Day.
Kelce is considered one of the greatest tight ends of all time.
He also holds the record for career postseason receptions at 165, set the record for single-season receiving years by a tight end in 2020 and became the fastest tight end to reach 11,000 yards in 2023.
The nine-time Pro Bowler also holds the NFL records for most consecutive and most overall seasons with 1,000 receiving yards by a tight end — seven.
However, the 35-year-old has started the season slowly by his lofty standards, evidenced by the fact it took him until Week 8 to register his first touchdown of the campaign.
The Ohio native addressed his slow start to the season on an recent episode of New Heights with brother Jason.
“I’ve had a lot of catches in this league, man. I’m not worried about, you know, the catches and the yards and all of that. I have the most fun when I get the ball thrown my way. I mean, who doesn’t?” Kelce said.
“As long as we’re winning football games, we’re good to go, baby.”
The reigning Super Bowl champions have won, won, and won again this season.
They are the NFL’s only remaining undefeated team and have a 7-0 record to start the season.
With the victory against the Raiders, the Chiefs have become only the seventh reigning Super Bowl champions to win each of their first seven games, joining the 2015 and 2019 New England Patriots, 2011 Green Bay Packers, 2007 Indianapolis Colts, 1998 Denver Broncos and 1990 San Francisco 49ers.
Mahomes is now 11-2 against Las Vegas for his career.
Kelce, meanwhile, has had 121 catches for 1,514 yards and has scored 12 touchdowns in 21 games against the Raiders in his career.
The Chiefs are bidding for an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl this season, having tasted victory in the last two showpiece events.
