Ed Kelce questions if Travis Kelce was hit with a banned hip-drop tackle by LA Chargers player in Chiefs game

Travis Kelce’s father Ed has asked if his son was targeted with a dangerous hip-drop tackle by Los Angeles Chargers’ safety AJ Finley on Sunday.

Kelce caught a 38-yard throw from Patrick Mahomes before Finley took him down in the first quarter of the game. The Chiefs tight end did not appear hurt from the tackle or unhappy with Finley’s challenge, instead getting to his feet to celebrate.

But on Monday, Ed Kelce shared a clip of the catch with the caption: ‘Was this one of those drop-hip tackles?’

NFL teams voted unanimously to ban hip drop tackles ahead of the 2024 season, saying that after analyzing over 20,000 tackles it determined the technique is 20 times more likely to cause injury.

It described a hip drop tackle as a player ‘grabbing the runner with both hands or wrapping the runner with both hands and unweighting himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee.’

Kelce was tackled by Chargers’ safety AJ Finley after his 38-yard reception for the Chiefs 

Finley does grab Kelce with both arms before the two players tumbled to the floor and he appeared to land on the back of Kelce’s left leg. On a closer look, it is easy to see how Kelce could have got badly hurt if his luck was against him.

Last year, Kelce’s fellow tight end Mark Andrews, who plays for the Baltimore Ravens, missed two months when a hip drop tackle from Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson left him needing surgery for a fractured fibula and ligament damage. 

An injury to Kelce would have been devastating for the Chiefs. Hollywood Brown is already out for the season, Isaiah Pacheco is out for around eight weeks with a leg fracture and Rashee Rice is expected to miss significant time after hurting his knee in Sunday’s game from a mis-timed tackle by Mahomes.

It made it all the more timely for Kelce to signal a return to form in the hard-fought 17-10 win at SoFi Stadium.

The 38-yard gain was a standout moment on a day where he claimed a franchise record for the most receptions in Chiefs history with a total of 922. He had seven catches vs. the Chargers overall, for a total of 89 yards.

It eclipsed what Kelce had managed from his first three games of the season combined, which was only eight catches for 69 yards. 

Kelce’s girlfriend Taylor Swift was not in the stands on Sunday to cheer him on in California, the second straight week she has skipped a Chiefs game.

Kelce didn’t speak to reporters in the locker room after the game but coach Andy Reid dismissed any fears about his star man getting back to his best.

Ed Kelce took to Facebook on Monday to question the tackle made on his son in the game 

‘I really don’t care what anybody thinks, to be honest with you,’ Reid said. ‘I watch what the defense does and how they respect him, and so I take it off of that. 

‘And I watch Trav every day, so I get to see him in how he works, how he never wants to come out in practice, in the game. He’s all in all the time, so I don’t worry about all that.’

Kelce turns 35 on Saturday, October 5. His next game for the Chiefs is next Monday – the first Monday night game he will play since his brother Jason retired and joined ESPN as an analyst.