Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s comments on Orlando Brown signing with the Bengals will make NFL fans — and Star Wars geeks — feel things.
The Force was strong with Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Orlando Brown while all three were on the Kansas City Chiefs, but Brown’s departure has sapped the team’s offensive energy and made the team more vulnerable.
Two weeks ago, star tackle Orlando Brown signed a four-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals, a.k.a. the Chiefs’ arch nemeses.
Cincy finally got Joe Burrow his premier blindside protector and at an extremely reasonable price, too. Earlier in free agency, the Chiefs already moved on from Brown by bringing on former Jaguars OT Jawaan Taylor to take the left tackle spot; still, Brown signing with the Bengals out of all teams could feel like a knife to the back.
For Kelce, Brown joining Cincinnati was the equivalent of Anakin joining the dark side, leaving Obi-Wan Kenobi and the benevolent ways of the Force behind to instead pursue universe domination.
Kelce said on an episode of the “New Heights” podcast hosted by him and Jason Kelce:
"“It hurts. It hurts my soul, man. It’s like watching your best friend just turn evil on you. Obviously, I mean, the past two years we’ve struggled beating the Bengals…. So it’s like, to see him go to the dark side, man, it’s an awkward feeling.”"
Travis Kelce and the Chiefs couldn’t stop Orlando Brown from signing with the enemy
Kelce also wished Brown the best and hoped that Brown would have a “Hall of Fame career,” indicating that it’s not all bad blood between him and his former Jedi Padawan.
During Brown’s two-year stint in Kansas City, he hoisted one Lombardi Trophy this past season and helped the Chiefs reach the AFC Championship in 2021, where they were pulverized by a Death Star blast from none other than the Bengals.
In line with the whole Star Wars analogy, Andy Reid would obviously be Yoda, Matt Nagy would be Grogu, Patrick Mahomes would be Luke Skywalker, and Joe Burrow would be….Darth Vader, probably.
Despite beating Cincy and going on to win the Super Bowl in 2022, the Chiefs’ 1-3 record against Joe Burrow’s Bengals had some ill-advised mayors asking Burrow to take a paternity test to determine if he was Mahomes’ father. A regrettable decision in retrospect, but the stats don’t lie.
On the frigid exo-planet that is Burrowhead (“Joe Brrrr” is the national catchphrase) where little Eli Apple Ewoks run around creating havoc and Jackson-3PO does the Robot during his endless live stream of Tik Tok dances, the Mahomes-Burrow rivalry promises to be one of the most entertaining matchups to determine the fate of the AFC universe.
We’ll see which team has the higher ground in 2023.