The Kansas City Chiefs have stayed busy since winning the 2024 Super Bowl — and they’re already getting back to work.
Just three months after securing their second consecutive NFL championship, several team members, including quarterback Patrick Mahomes, returned to the Chiefs facility for organized team activities (OTAs) before the 2024/2025 NFL season. “The work starts now,” the Chiefs’ official X page captioned a video of the athletes’ arrivals on Tuesday, May 21.
As part of the league’s offseason workout program, OTAs consist of non-contact practices to help teams gear up for the year ahead. The practices are voluntary and give rookies a chance to integrate themselves with the rest of the team before training camps kick off.
Since defeating the San Francisco 49ers in overtime in February’s Super Bowl, the Chiefs have continued to make headlines. While tragedy struck the team due to the Super Bowl parade shooting, many Chiefs players have also been in the spotlight for their love lives, personal scandals and controversial comments.
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Keep scrolling for a recap of the team’s biggest moments of the year so far:
Super Bowl Parade Shooting
One fan was killed and nearly two dozen were injured when shots were fired during the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade in Kansas City in February. “We are truly saddened by the senseless act of violence that occurred outside of Union Station at the conclusion of today’s parade and rally,” the team wrote in an X statement at the time. “Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and all of Kansas City.”
Patrick, 28, and his wife, Brittany Mahomes, later visited a local hospital where children injured in the shooting were being treated. Travis Kelce’s charity, Eighty-Seven Running, donated $100,000 to victims.
Three men have since been charged with second-degree murder in relation to the incident, per NBC News.
Rashee Rice Scandals
In March, the wide receiver was involved in a high-speed, hit-and-run car crash in Dallas. “I take full responsibility for my part in this matter and will continue to cooperate with the necessary authorities,” Rice, who was released on bond after turning himself in to police, said in an April 3 Instagram statement. “I sincerely apologize to everyone impacted in Saturday’s accident.”
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Rice and other passengers fled the scene following the wreck, and he faced multiple charges including six counts of collision involving bodily injury. He was reportedly sued for $10 million in damages by victims of the crash.
Two months later, Rice was accused of physically assaulting a photographer at a Dallas nightclub on May 7, but the charges were reportedly dropped. Despite the drama, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported via X that Rice is “attending and participating in all activities” with the team at OTAs.
Travis Kelce Enjoys His Taylor Swift Era
Just as Taylor Swift supported Kelce, 34, at many of his NFL games last season, the tight end attended several of the pop star’s international Eras Tour concerts. Not long after the Super Bowl, Kelce traveled to Sydney for the second leg of Swift’s Australia concerts. She continued her tradition of changing the lyrics to “Karma” from “guy on the screen” to “guy on the Chiefs” in honor of Kelce’s attendance.
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The pair were spotted kissing after the show at the Sydney concert before he was seen in the audience of her March 8 performance in Singapore. Kelce traveled across the pond once more in April for Swift’s 87th (a.k.a. his Chiefs jersey number) Eras Tour show in Paris.
Swift debuted songs from her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, during her European shows. Included in the new setlist is one of the many songs from the record rumored to be about Kelce, “So High School,” which featured Swift and her dancers sitting on bleachers. The song’s choreography also had nods to Kelce’s touchdown dances.
Outside of spending time together on tour, Kelce and Swift, 34, stepped out for multiple date nights in Los Angeles, Malibu and Lake Como, Italy. They also joined Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper for a couples trip in April, one month after their getaway to the Bahamas.
Despite rumors about the couple taking their relationship to the next level, a source exclusively told Us Weekly on May 21,“Travis has no plans on proposing to Taylor anytime soon,” adding, “It’s not even on his radar. Marriage is something he takes very seriously and not something he would ever just jump into without giving it some careful consideration.”
Travis Kelce’s Career Moves
Kelce extended his NFL contract in March, allowing him to play for the Chiefs until the end of the 2027 season and making him the highest-paid tight end in the league. He continued to expand his career outside of football, serving as host of the upcoming Prime Video game show Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?
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“I grew up loving game shows, and I’m excited to be following in the footsteps of so many TV icons by hosting my very first one with Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?” he said in an April 16 statement about the series. “The original show [Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?] is a great success, so to be bringing a new format with everyone’s favorite celebrities to the screen, will definitely be entertaining.”
Travis revealed during a May episode of his and his brother Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast that he had a “blast” filming the new series. “To be honest, I always wanted to do something with a game show,” he added. “I always wanted to be a part of it, whether I was a contestant, somebody helping out or hosting one.”
The athlete was also tapped to star in the upcoming Ryan Murphy horror series Grotesquerie alongside Niecy Nash. Details about the show’s plot and Travis’ character are currently under wraps, but he has been spotted flashing smiles and carrying scripts on set.
“I feel like a jabroni, I feel like an amateur,” Travis admitted during a May “New Heights” podcast episode. “Haven’t gotten fired yet, so we’re doing good.” He went on to tease that the show’s title adds to the mystery, adding, “Every scene has just been so much fun to be in.”
Travis later hosted the second annual Kelce Jam in Kansas City with headliners Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, Diplo and more special guests. (Swift, however, was unable to attend due to her busy tour schedule.)
Chiefs Players and More React to Harrison Butker’s Controversial Speech
Harrison Butker’s Speech Controversy
The Chiefs kicker faced backlash from athletes, celebrities and fans for comments he made while giving a commencement speech at Benedictine College in May.
While specifically addressing female graduates, he claimed, “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
He went on to credit his wife, Isabelle, for his success because she “convert[ed] to the faith, [became] my wife and embrace[d] one of the most important titles of all: Homemaker.”
In his speech, Butker also criticized President Joe Biden and the affect “poor policies” have had on “issues like abortion, IVF surrogacy [and] euthanasia,” compared the LGBTQ+ community’s Pride Month to “deadly sins” and argued that “disorder, dysfunction and chaos set in” if men do not “set the tone of society.”
Butker also quoted the lyric “familiarity breeds contempt” from Swift’s song “Bejeweled,” referring to her as his “teammate’s girlfriend.”
Susannah Leisegang, a student present at the graduation ceremony, revealed in a TikTok video later that month that she and other women in attendance booed Butker during his speech, though most people gave the NFL star a “standing ovation.”
Among those who expressed their displeasure with the speech were the nuns of Benedictine College. “The sisters of Mount St. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested,” the group wrote in a Facebook statement. “Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division. One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman.”
Isaiah Buggs’ Animal Cruelty Allegations
News that the defensive lineman was facing two misdemeanor charges went public on May 29, after Tuscaloosa Police Department allegedly found two dogs that appeared malnourished and neglected left on a screened-in porch at a house Buggs was renting. The incident apparently occurred in March.
Court documents obtained by various publications revealed that Buggs was facing two misdemeanor charges of cruelty to dogs in the second degree. His agent, Trey Robinson, denied the allegations in a lengthy statement, claiming that this was related to an ongoing battle between Buggs and the City of Tuscaloosa, who wants to close down his hookah restaurant.
