As the old cliché goes, winning cures all. And yet, despite the Kansas City Chiefs emerging from Super Bowl LVIII victorious, people are still debating Travis Kelce’s sideline eruption at head coach Andy Reid.
The altercation occurred early in the second quarter, when Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco fumbled the ball back to the San Francisco 49ers, who laid claim to a 3-0 lead at the time. As shown by the CBS broadcast, a visibly angry Kelce proceeded to forcefully grab Reid while shouting at him, presumably because he was upset he wasn’t in the game with Kansas City in the red zone when Pacheco fumbled.
Both Reid and Kelce have downplayed the confrontation — like I said, winning cures all. But on Wednesday’s episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, former Miami Marlins president David Samson made the bold claim that he would have made an example of the All-Pro tight end by benching him for his actions.
“I would have benched him,” Samson said. “One series.”
After Le Batard pushed back that there’s no way Samson would have benched a player of Kelce’s caliber in a championship game, the Nothing Personal host doubled down.
“If a baseball player attacks a manager physically during a game, you don’t think he’s taken out of the game?” Samson asked, before later adding, “I’m not out of my mind because you’ve got a team of 50-plus players who are watching what Travis Kelce did and saying, ‘Oh, I guess he can do that.’ It’s not as though Kelce’s not being treated differently already with all of the ridiculousness around Taylor Swift.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rViTQ_CUoI
Asked if he would have benched a star Marlins player in a similar scenario, Samson said that his former team did bench Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez for being disrespectful to his teammates and coaches during its World Series championship season in 2003 — albeit in the regular season. Producer Jessica Smetana followed up by asking if such discipline is worth losing a championship over, and the former Survivor contestant insisted it is.
“Yes,” Samson said. “And by the way, I don’t believe they would have lost the championship by benching Kelce for a series.”
Yet despite initially stating the he would have only benched Kelce for a series, Samson could only hide how he truly felt for so long.
“I should have benched him for the game,” he said. “What he did is inexcusable and no one talks about it ’cause no one wants to upset Taylor. It’s a joke.”
There’s a lot to unpack here.
While benching Kelce for a series might have been reasonable, it’s also easy to say that from a 30,000-foot view. Despite insisting that he would have been willing to bench a star player in the World Series for his behavior, there’s no way of actually knowing that without having been in the same scenario.
As for Samson’s claim that the Chiefs still would have won the Super Bowl without Kelce on the field — even for a series — that’s also a tough sell. Considering that the game was so closely contested that it went to overtime and that Kelce was Kansas City’s leading receiver, there’s no way to truly know how the game would have played out without him on the field for any less time than he was.
Lastly, the idea that Kelce isn’t facing backlash for the sideline eruption due to the Swifties is simply laughable. After all, the 34-year-old has received criticism for the altercation (including from his own brother). And the feelings of the Swifties sure didn’t seem to matter when everybody was writing Kelce off as washed (or worse, blaming Swift) during the regular season.
Samson is certainly entitled to his opinion and his experience as an ex-team president gives him a unique perspective. But for somebody whose podcast is named Nothing Personal, he sure seems to be letting feelings getting in the way of business on this particular subject.
[The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz]