With greatness comes controversy. And having to tackle ugly, awkward questions is like a secondary skill a public personality has to acquire nowadays. But still, the endless barrage of questions keeps coming from reporters who just care about making spicy headlines. For them, some lines that shouldn’t be crossed are blurred. And one such reporter found his way to the Chiefs Tight End (TE), Travis Kelce.

Obviously the temperatures are up. The Super Bowl is just 4 days away. And when there have already been questionable decisions going in favor of our 2 Super Bowl participants, no wonder some of the questions will be difficult to address, and more so if there is a personal angle added to it. What should we do about such reporters who make things personal?

Travis Kelce was probably not ready for it, although he knew the noise that had been coming from the rival camps. And this time, he encountered the accusations face to face from a reporter: “Travis, what do you love more? Taylor Swift or Phantom 15-yard roughing the passer penalties in the playoffs?”

Oh, that was below the belt. That was uncalled for. Where is sportsmanship and respect for one of the best Tight Ends of this generation? Travis must have felt nauseous. Although what he did was top class. As if getting ready to answer that question, Kelce plainly said, “That’s a good question,” and left the reporter hanging. Next words from Kelce without a second lost came, “Anybody else?”

Well, not everyone can be Travis Kelce. And we are not admiring the guy in this instance for having made many playoff records in his name in the ongoing 2024-25 NFL campaign. No, not for his record of 9 playoff games with 100+ receiving yards – the most. No, not for his 7th straight season with 90+ plus receptions.  We respect him for keeping his cool, and leaving the reporter dumb-founded and snubbed.

But Travis’s fans are not as cool-headed as him. They saw it and let’s just say they couldn’t let it pass like the TE did.

Travis Kelce ignores, but the fans hit back

For the majority of the fans, it’s simple. They want such reporters gone. One of them tweeted, “That reporter should be fired.” Fans have been pouring in with different emotions, some even ridiculing the question itself.  One fan went, “What kind of question is this lol??” Well, obviously it was unclassy on the reporter’s behalf to bring up the referee topic by stitching it with Taylor Swift. Of course, it will touch a nerve. Kudos to Travis Kelce for handling it like a professional.

Another fan was nuanced about it. Though acknowledging that decisions have been going in some particular teams’ favor, a Twitter user did point out that bringing in Travis Kelce’s loved ones is crossing a boundary: “💯agree. Horrible question but the refs are clearly biased. They also seem to favor my Eagles. Kelce and his personal life is not the right target.”

We are at a point when there have to be some regulations put in as far as reporters are concerned. They have just started taking sides and peddling an agenda, like one fan mentioned: “Sports “journalism” starting to follow the course of mainstream political “journalism”. Sad how far the profession has regressed…”

Today’s reporters seem to have forgotten what real journalism is – to ask deep questions, to confront players with facts and statistics. No, one fan perfectly summed up what journalism has become these days: “These new reporters want a viral moment too bad like please get out of the way fr”.

The Chiefs have been dealing with these favoritism allegations for a while now. Superstar Quarterback (QB) Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid have been dealing with them the way they should be. Should Kelce have confronted the reporter? Well, that would have given the guy the cheap headline he was looking for. Travis should answer it his way – on February 9.