Chiefs' Travis Kelce Talks Patrick Mahomes' Injury, 'Almost Like It Wasn't Real'

The 2025 season went from bad to worse for the Kansas City Chiefs when they lost star quarterback Patrick Mahomes to a torn ACL on the same day that they were eliminated from playoff contention.

On Wednesday's episode of the New Heights podcast (3:42 mark), Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce opened up about the team's reaction to Mahomes' devastating injury in Sunday's 16-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

"Well, first things first, obviously, we lost our quarterback, man. Patty Mahomes, our guy, our brother, our fearless leader, our face of the franchise, to an ACL. It's never easy seeing your guys go down," Kelce said. "We had a bunch of guys get hurt this past game, and we fought, man. We fought. We had some guys fight through some stuff. We had some guys, unfortunately, not make it back out on the field. And for the season to be going like it did up to that point, and we're on our last quest to try and keep our playoff hopes alive there in the fourth quarter, and on a freakish play to see 1-5 go down like that, man. It f--king, it was almost like it wasn't real."

Mahomes suffered the injury with less than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter while the Chiefs were trying to mount a last-second comeback. The two-time NFL MVP underwent successful surgery Monday night in Dallas to repair the torn ACL and LCL in his left knee.

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Kelce has been Mahomes' top target for years, and this season was no different. He leads the team with 67 catches, 92 targets and 797 receiving yards while tying for the team-lead with five receiving touchdowns. The 36-year-old could be nearing the end of his stellar career, and now he will have to play out the final three games of this season without his longtime signal-caller.

"The s--t just sucks, man," Kelce added. "For a guy that puts in that much and puts his body on the line week in, week out, and, you know, makes this football world, he makes the best of it, man, by how hard he works. And it just, it sucks, man."