mayhap: Liv Tyler with a book pressed to her face (Liv Tyler)
We learned this week on New Heights that Jason Kelce has a conspiracy theory that Gritty is actually a ripoff of himself, because a.) he was introduced after Jason made a big impression with his famous Super Bowl parade speech and b.) he has substantial eyebrows. (Travis doesn’t buy this theory because c.) literally everything else about Gritty’s appearance.)

Had this bombshell been revealed before Yuletide, I would have needed to do a fair bit of revision to incorporate it into my story, but since it wasn't, I shan't.

We also learned that, sadly, Travis has never taken Pat to a hockey game. This is the NHL’s fault for not maintaining a franchise in Kansas City, which would be the most convenient location for them to go on bro dates. Travis yearns to share his love of hockey!
mayhap: animated gif of yule log burning (yule log)
I wrote something very silly indeed for Yuletide this year! It was a lot of fun.

No Dumb Yuletide Stories, Just Dumb Podcast Hosts (1092 words) by mayhap
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: National Football League RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jason Kelce & Travis Kelce
Characters: Jason Kelce, Travis Kelce
Additional Tags: Humor, Characters React to Fandom, Yuletide
Summary: We gotta talk about it.

Although we still don't have a release date for Happy Gilmore 2, since I wrote this, the trailer did drop. Travis is totally living that self-insert life for real.
mayhap: illustration of a woman standing facing a fantasy city on a hill (Colors in the Dreamweaver's Loom)
This website attempts to ascertain your personal blue-green boundary by making you look at slight variations on the same greeny-bluey blue-green until you have the chromatic equivalent of semantic satiation and categorize them as either blue or green. It told me that my boundary is located hue 175, which is apparently bluer than 65% of the population.

My blue does not include Travis Kelce's eyes, which I have always held to be very obviously green. I may have even jested about the failing New York Times when they off-handedly referred to them as blue in their profile of the Eanes brothers. They possibly actually attempted some fact-checking, though, because it transpires that Donna Kelce is convinced that her son's eyes are blue.

This revelation caused enough of a kerfuffle that it worked its way back to the New Heights team and they addressed it in this week's No Dumb Questions segment. Jason agrees with me that they're green. Travis sided with all factions by saying that they change colors, but what he put on his (presumably now current) driver's license is green. Vindication!
mayhap: Patrick Mahomes riding on Travis Kelce's back (piggyback)
I love the way Travis Kelce does fandom. Simply talk about how much you love a canon, such as the classic Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore, and then get Adam Sandler himself to write you into the actual sequel while raving about how funny and handsome you are. Here I've just been writing my own fanfic like a chump!

He also produced another fanwork, a video of him performing Happy Gilmore-type golf swing without the special effects. (He and Jason did play hockey when they were kids, so he does have roughly the appropriate background.) Naturally, my favorite part was when Patrick Mahomes, who sounds like he's the one filming, chimes in with a delighted chortle because of course he is and does. Adorable.

The New Heights podcast is back now and pretty soon football will be, too! We're so close.
mayhap: Patrick Mahomes wrapping his arms around Travis Kelce (hold me back)
He’s finally done it, the absolute madman. Patrick Mahomes completed a behind-the-back pass in a preseason game to—who else?—Travis Kelce.

Hang this in the Louvre fr )

Much like Ahab’s quest for the titular whale, this feat was, according to Pat’s in-game interview, motivated by spite:
I mean, long story short, Travis didn't run the route he was supposed to run, and then it was kind of a behind-the-back pass kind of ’cause I was mad, I was pissed off at Travis. He was supposed to run a flat route—I don't know if you can hear me in the broadcast, I was yelling at him, and then he doesn't run it, so out of spite, I threw a behind-the-back pass, but now it's going to be a highlight.
Hilarious behavior. I'm going to throw you the ball, that'll show you! Pat, this flawed approach could be why you have limited success keeping Travis under control, I'm just saying.

Naturally, once I heard this, I was curious what Travis’s side of the story would be, and luckily he had his own in-game interview, since who even knows when the New Heights podcast is coming back.
You know, he’s got the voice thing, [incomprehensible frog noises], so he kind of mumbled out the play, I couldn't hear it, and I was walking up to the line and I was trying to, like, decipher what he was saying, and before I knew it, he snapped the ball, and, uh, yeah. And then I kind of saw him out of my peripheral run to the sideline, so I was trying to go help my guy out. By the time I looked over there, he was already in mid form, like a photo on a sports card, throwing the ball to me, so it was just, uh, I guess, right place at the right time.
Travis doesn't bust out his Pat impression too often, but whenever he does, it's gold. (Andy Reid supposedly does an incredible one, but alas, we, the public, will probably never hear it, because that's how he rolls.) Not that I think just anyone should be allowed to make fun of Pat’s voice, because that's rude and hurtful, but Travis can get away with it, like he can get away with not even knowing what he’s doing instead of running the correct route.

Now, this is all very fun, but preseason games are barely even games at all, only slightly more serious than practices. I still long to see the behind-the-back pass in a real game. Of course, like Pat said in the postgame, it has to happen naturally—they're not going actually call for it in the huddle, but when a play breaks down, Pat’s so good at recognizing opportunities, and if the stars align and he has this in his back pocket, he could finally pull the trigger on it, and it could be so beautiful…
mayhap: Patrick Mahomes hanging onto Travis Kelce for mutual drunken support (friends in low places)
These Super Bowl rings are such preposterous objects. They look hilarious on even giant athlete hands. I love them so much.



Oh, yeah, baby, time to strut your stuff, you earned it. ❤️





I'm not the one who grouped the picture of himself with Travis with the picture of himself with Brittany in a single Instagram post, okay.



Taylor was watching along on Mecole Hardman's girlfriend's livestream! ❤️
mayhap: Patrick Mahomes wrapping his arms around Travis Kelce (hold me back)
Travis Kelce is publicly sticking to his originally stated timeline for retirement, i.e., not until the wheels come off, and also choosing to phrase it absolutely hilariously, so there's that. I guess there's no particular reason to worry that he didn't extend his contract past next season since he could easily do it whenever if he wants. At least now I can concentrate exclusively on worrying about injuries! This is a good hair length/beard length combo for me, too. I accept them all as they come but some of them are more enjoyable than others.

He and Jason also discussed Travis's only touchdown pass during the Teach Tape segment of New Heights last week, a play that is near and dear to my heart. Still on the wishlist would be a play where Pat gets to receive a pass from him. (Travis agrees that he was open! ❤️)

Speaking of whom, Pat pitched a football like a baseball during mandatory minicamp. I love these shenanigans. Also, there's a truism among sportswriters that “everyone looks good in shorts,” and they mean “every football player looks like they can play at a high level before padded practices begin,” but seriously, everyone looks good in shorts, ifyouknowwhatImean.
mayhap: Mike and Psmith walking and chatting (Mike/Psmith)
Every year the Chiefs' social media team tantalizes us with Patrick Mahomes behind the back passes from practices like this one:



So fucking hot.

Tragically, the behind the back pass has yet to be unleashed in an actual game. When questioned about it on First Things First, this is what Pat said:
I think it was we didn’t play as well offensively enough for me to pull the behind-the-back pass off this last year. But it’s no one else’s fault than myself, because Coach Reid wants me to throw it behind the back more than anyone in the world. And so he deliberately puts in plays that I have the opportunity to throw the ball behind the back. So it’s not a coaching thing. It’s me not having that confidence to do it in a game. But one of these games, man, we’ve got to do it. There’s been too much hype on it. We’ve got to do it and hopefully it’s to Trav. He’s the best at judging that behind-the-back pass.

I do love that he just had to get that last part in there, fully unprompted. If he wants his first time to be with Travis, though, it might be a good idea to pull the trigger sooner rather than later, loathe though I am to even think about it.
mayhap: Marshmallow Fluff label (Fluff)
This leaked image looks like it comes from some extremely specific porn for people who are into jocks in tube socks, sugary breakfast cereals, micro/macro and vore:



I'll cop to two of those, anyway. Looking forward to seeing the actual ad approximately one jillion times during the upcoming NFL season!

hold on

Apr. 30th, 2024 08:45 pm
mayhap: Patrick Mahomes hanging onto Travis Kelce for mutual drunken support (friends in low places)
I don't pretend to know much about the guys who end up late round draft picks or UFDA signings, so I'm just going to assume that Brett Veach nailed them all until proven otherwise. His track record speaks for itself, aside from the 2018 draft, but we don't speak of that draft anymore. It was like the first pancake that you fuck up and then throw away.

I was quite surprised to see the news that Travis Kelce had signed a two-year contract extension, and then equally surprised in a different way to see the correction to the news that it wasn't an extension, it was a $4 million raise with new guarantees that bumps him back to the highest-paid tight end for the two years that he was already under contract for. Which, I mean, he deserves to be the highest-paid tight end—really, he belongs in a class by himself and other tight ends' salaries aren't even relevant—but they don't normally go around giving guys more money just because they happen to deserve it. Travis's stated positions that he never wants to play for any team other than the Chiefs and that he would play football for free don't exactly lend themselves to driving a hard bargain.

I suppose he could have threatened to retire, but it's hard to imagine $4 million swaying that decision much in either direction, and if it happened, nobody is talking about it. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.


Pat tweeted this in response and it's very cute but also, what do you mean, you told us? Nobody who's actually serious thought he was leaving in the next two years?? I mean, yes, I do believe Pat would prevent Travis from ever retiring if that were a physical possibility, but alas. At least he's feeling good about the next two years? 🤞
mayhap: sheet music with text Anyone can take the harmony if they will only leave us the counterpoint (counterpoint)
I’m really enjoying this new NFL RPF fic! It’s so sweet and fun and more than a little saucy, and the Travis Kelce characterization is on point. Definitely going to subscribe to the author, someone named Taylor Swift? She really knows her stuff. Can’t wait to see what she writes next!
mayhap: Patrick Mahomes riding on Travis Kelce's back (piggyback)
Patrick Mahomes has still never not made it to the AFC Championship game as a starter, even though his five-year streak of hosting it has been snapped. His floor is an AFC Championship loss, and so far that has happened as many times has he has been named Super Bowl MVP (twice). It's really quite astonishing and ought to be properly appreciated, no matter what else happens this postseason.

In the afternoon game, two castoff number one overall draft picks faced off against each other with their new teams and Jared Goff and the Lions duly defeated Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers 31-23, although it was close right up until the end and managed to adequately distract me while I was waiting for my game to start. With the 49ers looking a bit mortal in their last game, it's not at all out of the question that the Lions could make it to the Super Bowl, strange as that is to say.

At last, it was time for the feature presentation. There exists a rivalry between the Chiefs and the Bills, although it's arguably just a subset of the rivalry between the Bills and postseason success. The Chiefs crushed the Bills in the 2021 AFC Championship. Then the Bills won the regular season matchup in 2022 and their fans seemed to feel like their team had really accomplished something for some reason, only to find themselves playing the Chiefs again in the divisional round. A truly epic game ensued, with 25 points scored and four lead changes after the two-minute warning alone. When Josh Allen threw a touchdown with thirteen seconds left on the clock, people joked that he'd left Patrick Mahomes too much time to score…and they were correct. Thanks in no small part to Mahomes audibling to a play that Kelce suggested, the Chiefs kicked a game-tying field goal in those unlucky thirteen seconds and won in overtime.

But this time it was definitely supposed to be different. After all, the Bills had home field advantage. Their fans were burning Taylor Swift in effigy in the parking lot and throwing snowballs at players on the field with impunity. Surely the third time would be the charm.

The game reminded me of the thirteen seconds game, and not just because Tony Romo and Jim Nantz were bringing it up constantly. Tony Romo, in particular, is really starting to get on my nerves when he calls Chiefs-Bills games, because he's been hyping up Josh Allen for years now and he really wants his guy to finally live up to his hype and it's increasingly irritating when his commentary starts to feel slanted towards the outcome that he so clearly desires (and it's for my team to lose). I believe at one point during this game he said that “they” call Josh “the Alien” and “Mr. January,” when in fact those are both nicknames that he made up and that nobody else uses. “Mr. January,“ in particular, attracted a lot of scorn, since the Super Bowl is now played in February and he was basically saying that his guy can get to the playoffs but never play in the big game. Which, I mean, thus far that's been true, but it doesn't seem to have been what he meant. At any rate, this game was a real back-and-forth nail biter with lead changes galore, so it did indeed hearken back to the thirteen seconds game.

Fortunately to alleviate some of the tension we got periodic peeks at Jason Kelce living it up in the box with the rest of Travis's posse. Whether this is retirement or just the offseason for him, he is definitely living his best, most shirtless life. He even broke containment to hoist up a little girl with an “I ❤️ Taylor Swift” sign so she could say hi. [EDIT: That little girl shared her story, awwwww!] Travis accounted for two of the touchdowns in the game, so his friends and family had plenty to cheer for up there. I'm glad we've been able to show Taylor a good time with postseason football so far; it would be sad if we could only offer her a loss in the divisional round.

The last two minutes of this game were relatively dramatic, although nowhere near as action-packed as the thirteen seconds game, which is an outlier and should not have been counted. This time the Bills were the ones who needed a field goal to tie the game, and they missed it—wide right, naturally. Then the Chiefs just needed to pick up a single first down to be able to kneel it out, which they did, and that was the game.

It's extremely fun to watch your team just repeatedly rip another team's soul out like that. Mahomes says that he likes to be the villain in away games, and his teammates all confirmed that he was excited for it. Just look at this adorable little villain! We're only three and a half point underdogs against the Ravens next week, so who knows, maybe we'll fuck around and win another away playoff game and go to another Super Bowl in a ‘down year.’

Mild Cards

Jan. 16th, 2024 09:02 pm
mayhap: Patrick Mahomes wrapping his arms around Travis Kelce (hold me back)
Three days, six games, and one inexcusable Peacock exclusive later, we have the bracket set for the divisional round. Is the newly-expanded “‘Super’ Wild Card Weekend” good? No. Is it wild? Also no. Is it a lot of football? Yes.

(5) Browns at (4) Texans

Ordinarily, I'd have been happy to root for a quarterback barely a year younger than me getting signed off the couch and leading his former division rival to the playoffs, an outcome both heartwarming and chaotic. Unfortunately, the team in question is the Cleveland Browns, and I would never want anything good for the Browns after they traded away a king's ransom in draft picks for the privilege of giving Deshaun Watson an unheard of fully-guaranteed five-year $230 million dollar contract after he was outed as a serial predator who sexually harassed or sexually assaulted at least twenty-two massage therapists, so I could hardly enjoy the Joe Flacco Renaissance.

It was extremely fitting that the Browns were matched up against the Texans, a team that rebuilt itself partially on the draft picks they got from the Browns for Watson, who, in addition to being evil, has also been ineffectual and injured for the Browns, the sin that even the amoral fans don't forgive. Speaking of sins, the Texans had a very weird period where they were taken over by Jack Easterby, a chaplain with minimal football experience who somehow rose through the ranks to become a kind of co-general manager and then interim general manager. During his brief but baffling reign, he released Andre Johnson and traded DeAndre Hopkins for peanuts, seemingly because he perceived them as threats to his leadership. However, the team course corrected quickly after someone broke his spell, hiring a good new coach, drafting a new young quarterback who's looked amazing all year, and, of course, using the aforementioned draft haul. They still have the Browns' first-round draft pick next year, too!

Joe Flacco turned back into a pumpkin and threw back-to-back pick-sixes. The Texans cruised to a 45-14 victory. This game was not very interesting to watch but at least the Browns were not rewarded for their bad behavior.

(6) Dolphins at (3) Chiefs

Extremely cynically, this game was selected to be made available only on Peacock, NBC's streaming service, unless you were in the home market of one of the teams playing, in which case they are still required to show it on actual broadcast television. I hate this. NBC is bragging that they set a “new record” with 23 million viewers, which is indeed the most viewers for a streaming-exclusive playoff game in history, since it's also the only streaming-exclusive playoff game in history. Meanwhile, Browns-Texans, an utterly uncompetitive rout, easily drew a casual 29 million viewers in the afternoon slot because they put it on actual fucking NBC.

The game itself was pretty fun! I mean, not if you like the Dolphins, or close final scores, or seeing more total touchdowns scored than field goals kicked, but the game was competitive for longer than the final score of 26-7 would suggest, and there was also plenty of extreme weather-related amusement, from Andy Reid's mustache freezing to Patrick Mahomes's helmet shattering on contact. (That was obviously also worrisome, but they got it replaced with minimal disruption and everyone was okay, so all's well that ends well.)

My favorite play of the game was this pass to Travis Kelce, where he fell on the Dolphins player who tackled him in such a way that he was never actually rendered down by contact and then popped back up to gain more yardage and a first down. It's just a little thing, but it's a fun combination of luck and high football IQ. Overall, the team looked a little more like themselves than they have all year, and while I still don't have expectations of a deep playoff run, I at least believe that it's plausible that they could avoid embarrassing themselves for as many games as they manage to stay in it.

Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes wore matching football jersey winter coats customized by Kristin Juszczyk, wife of the 49ers' fullback. They look like they're having a lot of fun and it's adorable.

(7) Packers at (2) Cowboys

For the first time since the expansion of the playoffs in 2021, a seven seed has defeated a two seed and advanced to the divisional round. The game wasn't even as close as the final score of 48 to 32 makes it look, and that is actually not very close at all. This is hilarious because the Cowboys found a completely new way to disappoint their large and annoying fanbase, but it is also terrible because the Packers are still in the playoffs. Albeit they are matched up against against the 49ers, who currently have a four-game postseason winning streak against them dating back twelve years, so hopefully they will not stick around for long. (I live in the AFC West but I come from the NFC North and I maintain the traditional grudges of my people.)

Does this unprecedented outcome justify the addition of two whole wild card games every year? No, it is an abomination.

(6) Rams at (3) Lions

This was another narrative game that they clearly scripted up in the NFL writers' room. Matt Stafford had endured twelve years of futility with the Lions when the Rams came calling, looking to jettison former number one overall pick Jared Goff. This trade paid off immediately for the Rams, who won a Super Bowl with Stafford in his first year. Meanwhile, the Lions ended up hanging on to Goff, who had almost been an afterthought in the trade, and when they won the NFC North for the first time since that division was even created and earned a home playoff game for the first time in exactly thirty years, it was only fitting that their opponent should be Matt Stafford and his new team.

This was the only game all weekend with any interest at all for the neutral fan. Matt Stafford battled valiantly through a painful-looking hand injury and Puka Nacua set a new single-game receiving yards by a rookie record, but Jared Goff edged them 24-23 for his revenge, best served cold. Although Detroit has a dome, so it was probably actually pretty warm.

(7) Steelers at (2) Bills

This game had to be delayed a day due to a blizzard but the Steelers could only put off the inevitable for so long. The Bills have been a confusing team this year because as far as I've been able to tell they either look amazing or terrible with no in between, but they had no difficulty making the Steelers look like they didn't belong here in this game. Which they didn't. The seven seed is an abomination

I was rooting, however futilely, for the Steelers to come out on top, since that would have meant that the Chiefs got another home game against the Texans next week, but a 31-17 Bills win means that Patrick Mahomes is headed to Orchard Park for his very first away playoff game. In six years as a starter, Mahomes has played in fifteen postseason games so far, and they have been twelve home games and three Super Bowls. Obviously, the Chiefs demonstrated this week that they're not afraid of playing in the cold, but it's still nice to have a home crowd. Alas.

(5) Eagles at (4) Buccaneers

This game was just sad. I felt bad for Jason Kelce, whom I've really gotten to know from all the hours of podcasting with his little brother as well as well as the intimate documentary on Prime Video. The Eagles' 11-6 record disguises the fact that the team had been in freefall for the last third of their season and this game was more of the same. Even the “Brotherly Shove,” their signature unstoppable version of the quarterback sneak, was stoppable in this game, possibly because they overused it for a want of confidence in any other plays. Jalen Hurts apparently cannot read the defense properly when he's moving left, which might be what Nick Bosa was talking about when he said that the 49ers had figured him out. He's not an ambi-turner, okay?

I was extremely not surprised when Jason decided to retire after that game, because he looked completely done with everything by the end. It was at least a little bit satisfying that the Bucs managed to win a playoff game with Baker Mayfield at quarterback, since he was the one that the Browns cast off so they could overpay for a serial sex offender instead.

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