A Chiefs-Justin Tucker 2.0 incident occurred ahead of “Monday Night Football.”
On Thursday’s episode of the “SVPod” with Scott Van Pelt and Steve Coughlin, who is more widely known as “Stanford Steve,” the latter broke down an off-camera tiff that occurred between Travis Kelce and the Broncos punters ahead of the Chiefs’ dominant 31-10 victory at Arrowhead Stadium.
Coughlin explained the Broncos punters “messed up their timing” when managing their warmups. Thus, the Chiefs’ receivers and tight ends were running routes with Patrick Mahomes and their quarterbacks from the goal line out while, simultaneously, punts from Denver were coming over the 50-yard line from the opposite side of the field.
That ticked off the three-time Super Bowl champ.
“Travis’ eyes lit up and he sees the ball — it’s a Broncos ball — and it goes over towards the Broncos’ sideline,” Coughlin recalled. “He catches his route, runs over to the ball, takes the Broncos ball and punts it almost to the second deck. Good punter, up to the deck.”
“Into the stands?” Van Pelt quickly asked.
“Yeah, and now he’s like looking for another one,” Coughlin continued.
“Sure enough, he goes back, gives the ball up, goes back, runs his route and he’s just steaming. You can see it. Here comes another one. So, now the Broncos ball boy is running over because he saw Travis do it again. Travis is like nope. He beats him to the ball, takes the Broncos ball and chucks it up in the stands.
“I’m like ‘All right, we’re back here! The Chiefs are in it.’”
A smiling Van Pelt said, “I didn’t know that happened.”
Jeremy Crawshaw is the Broncos’ starting punter and was called on six times in the game due to Denver’s anemic offense. It’s unclear who — if anyone — was also irking Kelce in the pregame with their ill-timed boots.
The incident called back to a warmup dispute that occurred between Kelce and Mahomes and former Ravens kicker, Tucker, before the AFC Championship game in 2024.
The Chiefs teammates took exception to Tucker stretching close to where Mahomes was warming up. Videos showed Mahomes tossing Tucker’s kicking tee aside twice followed by Kelce kicking some of Tucker’s footballs off to the side and throwing his helmet off the field.
Tucker has since been accused of inappropriate behavior during massages and was released by the Ravens ahead of the 2025 season. The NFL suspended him for 10 games but no legal action has been taken.
Kelce’s punting incident also wasn’t the only unexpected happening to take place ahead of the Monday night clash.
He also snapped at a fan who was trying to swipe one of his gloves.
Kelce recorded 71 yards off of three receptions against the Broncos and became the team’s second all-time leading receiver.
Kelce’s wife Taylor Swift was present for their first game as a married couple and was seen sitting in a suite with Tom Cruise.
