Travis Kelce addresses if Chiefs took a dive with Bengals in mind

ESPN writer Don Van Natta Jr. went viral this past Sunday when he accused the Kansas City Chiefs of "taking a dive" en route to suffering a 38-0 Week 18 loss to the rival Denver Broncos that resulted in 10-7 Denver clinching a playoff berth and the 9-8 Cincinnati Bengals being eliminated from the postseason. 

During the latest edition of his "New Heights" podcast, All-Pro Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce addressed takes that claimed individuals within the Chiefs may have been "scared" of potentially seeing the Bengals and star quarterback Joe Burrow during the playoffs. 

"I ain’t scared of [expletive] nobody. I wanted them in the [expletive] playoffs," Kelce directly said about the Bengals, as shared by Andy Nesbitt of Sports Illustrated. "I want to slay every dragon one by one like 'Mortal Kombat.' I don’t even want this to be, we play the lowest seed. Just give me the best teams. AFC, NFC, give me all of them, 'Mortal Kombat' style. I’ll go through every [expletive] one of them giving them my best [expletive] effort."

Understandably, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid rested starters against the Broncos, as Kansas City was already locked into the No. 1 seed for the AFC portion of the postseason tournament following a Christmas Day win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. With that said, the Bengals closed the campaign with five straight victories and could have featured the league's Most Valuable Player Award winner for the regular season had they made the playoffs. 

Per Pro Football Reference, Burrow ended Week 18 leading the NFL with 4,918 passing yards and 43 passing touchdowns for the season. He is third among qualified players with a 75.0 adjusted QBR and a 108.5 passer rating. 

For what it's worth, Kelce and the Chiefs defeated the Bengals in January 2023 en route to winning Super Bowl LVII. Cincinnati beat Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game back in January 2022. 

"The Bengals were a [expletive] fun team to watch towards the end of the season," Kelce added during the podcast. "It’s a shame they didn’t make it in the playoffs because it would have made the playoffs that much [expletive] crazier and that much more fun."

The Chiefs will now hope to have fun by hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy for a third straight year, while Burrow and Co. are left wondering what could have been had Cincinnati not suffered a Week 1 loss to the lowly New England Patriots (4-13) in September.