Travis Kelce Blasts ‘Dumb’ Media in Defense of Steelers’ Mike Tomlin

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce torched critics of longtime Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin during a segment on his podcast, New Heights.

Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce discussed Tomlin clinching a 17th straight non-losing season, and used it as an opportunity to defend the Steelers coach against media criticism that had suggested Tomlin was on the hot seat earlier this year.

“The media is so dumb. Why do we even do the media? Just a bunch of jackasses, just out here f---ing talking nonsense”, Travis Kelce said. “One of the best coaches the NFL has ever even seen.”

Here’s the clip of the entire exchange.

Travis Kelce on the media wanting Mike Tomlin fired:

"The media is so dumb. Why do we do the media? Bunch of jackasses. Just out here f*cking talking nonsense. One of the best coaches the NFL has ever even seen, about to possibly get his 17th consecutive non losing season.”… pic.twitter.com/1MPnC8uYaK
— Matthew Luciow (@matthewluciow92) January 3, 2024

The brothers then took the opportunity to contextualize Tomlin’s remarkable 17-year streak by noting where they were 17 years ago. Jason Kelce was a freshman in college at the University of Cincinnati, while Travis joked about getting his driver’s license suspended 17 years ago while still a high school student.

This isn’t the first time Travis Kelce has used his podcast as a platform to criticize media coverage. In December, he used an expletive-laced rant to defend Chiefs skill position players like Kadarius Toney against negative media coverage.

The take on Tomlin certainly got Steelers fans talking.

Tomlin being fired makes so little sense to me.
Say we fire Tomlin, is the idea that we will LOSE more and it’ll be a better rebuild cuz of higher picks? It’s not like we aren’t picking first rounders; we’ve gotten one every year.
Is the idea we will WIN more? It can’t be https://t.co/suj9quiM5F
— conor 🦎 (@conorsbigday) January 3, 2024

This is great… and this is targeted to certain media members, not all. Some actually do their job https://t.co/OW7xIlmXO2
— H2Pburgh (@H2Pburgh) January 3, 2024