The Chiefs had nothing to play for in Week 18, so they rested several of their key players, including Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
The tight end had been expected to play to get the 16 yards he needed for 1,000 yards for the season.
Instead, Kelce was inactive.
Coach Andy Reid revealed Tuesday that the team let Kelce make the decision whether to continue his streak of 1,000-yard seasons or not.
“He is a humble, humble guy,” Reid said, via Ed Easton of USA Today. “It’s different because of the financial part of it, with Chris [Jones]. [Kelce] didn’t want to be selfish or come across as selfish. All the players want him to play, but he just goes, ‘You know what? I don’t like the way it feels.’ He’s not into that. He chose not to play, and I completely understand it. But that’s him. Most guys would have gone out and probably done it, but he said, ‘I’ve got a lot of records on this one here; I’m not going to do it this way.’”
Kelce finished the regular season with 984 yards receiving, the first time since 2015 he fell short of 1,000 yards.
Mahomes lauded his teammate for his selflessness during the quarterback’s weekly appearance on 610 Sports Radio.
“That speaks to the type of teammate that he is,” Mahomes said. “In all honesty, I was trying to force him to play, like I was trying to make him go out there because I knew he was going to try not to play, and he wanted to be about the team and not about him. I was trying to force him all the way up until game time, and then he said, ‘No, that’s not who I am. I don’t want to play for those reasons. I want to get myself healthy and ready for the playoffs.’
“A lot of guys would have done that and went out there and did it, and there’s no slight towards them. But the type of teammate Travis is, he couldn’t do that because he knew it wasn’t about him; it was about the team.”
Defensive lineman Chris Jones played 46 snaps to get a sack, giving him 10.5 on the season and a $1.25 million incentive in his contract. Kelce, though, had no monetary incentive.