Travis Kelce Defends Referees After AFC Championship Criticism: ‘I Thought It Was Fair’

Travis Kelce made his thoughts on the NFL referees and some of their seemingly questionable calls known during a virtual cameo on his brother Jason Kelce's They Call It Late Night show ahead of the 2025 Super Bowl.

"Be honest, if [the Kansas City Chiefs] would have lost, would you be here right now?" Jason, 37, asked his sibling, 35, on the Saturday, February 1, episode of his ESPN talk show.

According to Travis, he would have "100 percent" shown up in person had the Chiefs lost to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship earlier this month. (Kansas City won 32-29, securing their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance.)

"Dammit, Josh [Allen], why'd you have to ruin this?" Jason quipped.

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Travis then told his older brother not to blame the 28-year-old Bills quarterback, who the tight end said "played his tail off." Jason then jokingly questioned if the game's referees were to blame instead.

"What? I thought it was fair," Travis diplomatically responded.

Throughout the 2024-2025 season, some NFL fans have accused officials of favoritism and bias toward the reigning Super Bowl champions . (The Chiefs won back-to-back in 2023 and 2024, and are now hoping to take home the Lombardi Trophy for a third consecutive time — the first NFL team to ever win three in a row.)

Other members of the Chiefs organization have also denied that the powerhouse team is getting preferential treatment.

"We can stay with false narratives or discuss this — KC was 17th in % of scoring drives that were aided by a penalty for a first down on such drives in [a] regular season," longtime Chiefs radio announcer Mitch Holthussaid in a social media statement earlier this week. "Number 1? Wait for it…Buffalo. 33% of scoring drives were aided by penalty for a first down on 86 scoring drives."

The Chiefs, meanwhile, are currently focusing their efforts on Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, February 9 — a rematch of the 2023 Big Game against the Philadelphia Eagles  — later this month.

"I'm wishing the best for those guys [and] go birds," Travis said on Saturday before noting how the Chiefs are preparing for the matchup. "This team still feels hungry and it feels new almost. We got a lot of new players, got a lot of different faces from the previous two Super Bowl runs and it's a really different identity on the offensive side."

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According to the Chiefs tight end, the offensive line has a "new mindset" going into the Super Bowl, while the defense players remain "pretty stout."

"It's a new journey," Travis added.

Later on the broadcast, Travis played coy about the Chiefs' game plan — or whether he'd be handling the kickoff coin toss. (Travis is a team captain, alongside Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones, Nick Bolton, Harrison Butkerand James Winchester.)

"I can neither confirm nor deny," Travis coyly joked of the coin toss. "I think it's going to be heads or tails."