Chiefs TE Travis Kelce gives encouraging update on knee injury during 'New Heights'

Things are trending in the right direction for Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce ahead of Week 2 of the 2023 NFL season.  Kelce missed the Chiefs' Week 1 game against the Lions due to a hyperextended knee that left him with a significant bone bruise. The veteran tight end got a chance to talk about the […]

Charles Goldman — NFL Managing Editor
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Things are trending in the right direction for Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce ahead of Week 2 of the 2023 NFL season. 

Kelce missed the Chiefs' Week 1 game against the Lions due to a hyperextended knee that left him with a significant bone bruise. The veteran tight end got a chance to talk about the injury for the first time on his "New Heights Show" podcast with his brother Jason Kelce. 

The 33-year-old provided an update on his progress from the knee injury, and he shared some thoughts about why it might have happened. 

"Things are looking up," Travis said. "I feel a lot better than I did last week. I felt like an absolute asshole not being able to play in that first game. It just felt like. . . a non-contact injury? It felt like karma from this show to be honest. Making fun of Kevin Hart and Kylie (Kelce) for being too old and trying to do things that they shouldn't be doing because they're too old. I felt the karma from it. So, never making fun of anybody (again)."

I don't know about karma, but it certainly seems like some unfortunate luck for No. 87. Travis did confirm that the injury was non-contact. We knew that it happened during red zone drills in practice, but he took fans through exactly what happened. 

"I was literally running a route and put my foot in the ground and hyperextended my knee,'' Travis said. 

Jokes regarding karma aside, it's clear that Kelce takes immense personal responsibility for getting hurt and missing Week 1. He says that he only has himself to blame for what happened.

"I did feel like an asshole for not being able to be out there in Week 1," Kelce said. "You've got to be very fortunate to play this game. I take a lot of this to heart being able to be out there every week. Talking about that toughness rating on Madden, I love to put that on my resume that I make myself available every single week and (during) the last practice going into the first game, I got a little lazy on some of my movement, and sure enough, I offed myself, and couldn't play in the first game." 

As for Kelce's status heading into Week 2, things are still wait-and-see. He also confirmed some information reported about his injury during a FOX Sports broadcast on Sunday. 

"I would say, Jay Glazer's information was oddly very on point," Kelce said. "He was saying medical terms that I was like, 'I only heard that from the doctor. How did this information get out?' Which, I'm not really upset about because it was all pretty much true. I did run (Monday), and it feels like I might be able to play this week. We'll see how practice goes, man."

Featured image via New Heights Show

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