Travis Kelce has awkward relationship with controversial new teammate Justin Tucker

The Kansas City Chiefs have drawn plenty of backlash this week for signing kicker Justin Tucker to their practice squad, and the move has led to a lot of questions about how the team’s locker room will handle it. Among those who may be in an uncomfortable position is tight end Travis Kelce, who had a heated run-in with Tucker during warmups before the AFC Championship Game nearly three years ago. Chiefs Sign Tucker With Harrison Butker struggling this season, Kansas City worked out several kickers before signing Tucker, 36, on Wednesday. The signing was quite controversial. In January 2025, the Baltimore Banner reported that 16 massage therapists had accused Tucker of sexual misconduct. Tucker denied the allegations and was never criminally charged, but the Baltimore Ravens released him and the NFL suspended him for 10 games for violating its personal conduct policy. Andy Reid didn’t have much to say about the decision when asked by reporter Mac Morey what message the signing sends to women. “Yeah, so, he’s done his suspension, you know,” Reid said. “Took care of that business there. I’ll leave it at that for you.” Reid repeatedly pointed to the suspension and the team’s background work when pressed further. Asked about the impact on the locker room, Reid insisted that his players “get it.” “I’ve got a good locker room, first of all,” Reid said, via the Daily Mail . “They get it. We don’t have a lot of secrets from the guys, so we keep trying to be honest with them.” ‘Poking the Bear’ While Reid defended the move, Kelce and Tucker don’t exactly have a friendly history. Before the Chiefs faced the Ravens in the AFC Championship Game in Baltimore in January 2024, Kelce took issue with Tucker leaving his helmet, footballs, and kicking tee where Patrick Mahomes was warming up. Kelce ended up moving Tucker’s equipment out of the way himself. Kelce later explained his side of things on his New Heights podcast, and he didn’t hold back, claiming that Tucker was “poking the bear.” “If you wanna be a f***ing d*** about it, you keep your helmet, and your football and your f***ing kicking tee right where the quarterbacks are warming up,” Kelce said, in a clip shared by Bobby Trosset . “Don’t paint me as the bad guy. He was poking the bear.” Of course, that spat is minor compared to the allegations that followed. But it’s another reason why Tucker’s arrival in Kansas City figures to be awkward. ‘Competitors being competitors’ This week, Mahomes addressed the 2024 run-in, as he called it “competitors being competitors.” “We haven’t had a lot of conversations because he’s obviously on the Ravens and I was on the Chiefs,” Mahomes said, via A to Z Sports . “But it wasn’t like we ever had any beef or anything like that. I think at that moment it was just competitors being competitors. It was a big moment for everybody’s career, and you’re playing the AFC Championship Game.” “And he’s been a big, big-time kicker for a long time. Me and Trav were obviously competing, and we wanted to go out there and win. And that stuff happened. But then you move on from that,” he continued. “It wasn’t like we had some like long-standing beef that kind of carried over after the game. It’s kind of we won that game, and then I was on to the Super Bowl. So there’s nothing hostile, I guess you would say, moving forward from that,” Mahomes added. Needless to say, it’s an odd and potentially awkward situation. The post Travis Kelce has awkward relationship with controversial new teammate Justin Tucker appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions .