When it came to the 2024 NFL Playoffs, the Cincinnati Bengals had a glimmer of hope.
After a dismal start, the Bengals were resurrected to contending status due to excellent play from quarterback Joe Burrow and receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, to name a few.
All they needed was for the Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins, and Denver Broncos to lose before the end of the regular season. While the first two criteria were met, the Broncos dominantly came out on top.
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However, there has been some controversy over this since Denver faced the Kansas City Chiefs, the No. 1 team in the AFC.
Instead of playing the starters that established their dominance this season, the Chiefs elected to sit all of them, resulting in a Broncos blow out and the Bengals playoff aspirations coming to a halt.
This has resulted in thousands of Cincinnati and NFL fans accusing Kansas City of throwing the game on purpose so they didn't have to face the Bengals. And star tight end Travis Kelce is sick of hearing those rumors.
During an episode of Kelce's podcast "New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce," Jason Kelce brought up these accusations, and Travis was
"I ain't scared of f------ nobody," Travis declared. "I wanted them in the f------ playoffs. I wanna slay every dragon one by one like in Mortal Kombat."
"I don't even want this to be like we play the lowest seed. Just give me the best teams," Kelce continued. "Give me all of them, Mortal Kombat style. I'll go through every f------ one of them. Just giving them my best f------ effort. I ain't scared of a single soul, man."
Kelce went on to say that he'd go so far as to face them in a Walmart parking lot, and even said that the Bengals were a "fun-a-- f------ team to watch there toward the second half of the season."
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However, the commentary didn't end there. Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt called Kelce out on his Instagram story, saying, "Cap, shut the shi up," followed by a laughing emoji.
While most of the world will never know whether the game was thrown or not, one fact remains inherently true: of the Bengals eight losses, seven of them were by one score. Of those seven, three were by three points or less.
In the end, Cincinnati had plenty of moments where they could have pulled through with a win.
Hopefully, coming up short this season will light a fire under the team for the 2025 NFL Season.
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