Kansas City Chiefs

Travis Kelce fined $12.5K for referee comments following loss to Steelers

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:18 a.m. ET

Fansided, John Buhler/Fansided

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has been fined $12,500 for his comments towards the officials in the Chiefs’ home loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Blaming the referees for a team’s misfortune is never good. Saying that a referee is so under-qualified at his job that he can’t even wear that garb into a Foot Locker is another.

When the Kansas City Chiefs lost their AFC divisional round game to the Pittsburgh Steelers 18-16 last Sunday evening, Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce has his issues with the officials. He took out his frustrations in a post-game tirade and now he has been slapped with a $12,500 fined by the NFL for his Foot Locker comments.

From last week, #Chiefs TE Travis Kelce was fined $12,500 for his personal attack on an individual game official. #footlocker

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 21, 2017

Ripping the officials is not good for Kelce’s brand as the NFL’s other great tight end besides Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots. Blaming the officials for a postseason loss just feels like sour grapes.

Despite having home-field advantage and a night game at frigid Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs found a way to lose a game where their opponent did not score a touchdown. All 18 of the Steelers’ points came on six made field goals from Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell.

To make matters worse for the Chiefs, they became the first team in the Super Bowl era to have two more touchdowns than their opponent and still lose a playoff game. Kansas City might have to face the harsh reality that quarterback Alex Smith is not going to get them to the Super Bowl.

If the NFL really wanted to make a point, the league could made a point of fining Kelce an extra $3,500. That way Kelce would have been fined $1,000 for every point that Kansas City scored in that embarrassing home loss to the Steelers in the 2016 AFC Playoffs.