By MATT PIKE
Storms sent fans home early and forced the Kansas City Chiefs into the Griffons indoor sports complex for practice today.
After questions of if he would retire following last year’s Super Bowl loss, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is back in St. Joseph with the Chiefs for a 13th year.
Kelce says what juices him up more than anything is to see the way the Chiefs program has grown through those 13 years
“The fact that we have created this culture, we have created this machine that when you do it the right way it works and you get to win football games because of it,” Kelce tells reporters following practice. “And I think that alone kind of gives you the excitement that what we’re doing here is special.”
All those years, except for one, Chiefs Training Camp has been held in St. Joseph which Kelce has referred to in the past as his sanctuary, and he says that’s still the case.
“I love it here, it gets me away from everything else that’s going on in this crazy world and I think you can really just focus in on your craft and focus in on being the best you can for the guys around you,” Kelce explains. “Football’s always been the biggest driving force I’ve ever had so I love coming out here and focusing on this and getting better for another run at hopefully another Super Bowl.”
Kelce has said on his podcast ‘New Heights’ that when in St. Joseph it’s all about football and people can’t even get ahold of him.
Coming into Chiefs Training Camp last season, running back Carson Steele was looking to make an impact wherever he could.
Head Coach Andy Reid possibly viewed Steele as a fullback, which Steele did begin learning, but spent much of last season at running back behind Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt.
Coming into camp this year, Steele says he had a point of emphasis this offseason to continue working on several roles
“Work a lot more on my fullback role, special teams, as well as keeping the running back side of me,” Steele says. “I kind of talked last year about being a swiss army knife, kind of doing everything, but taking that to the next step this year.”
Steele is listed on the Chiefs first unofficial depth chart as the starting fullback, showing the Chiefs confidence in the growth of his blocking abilities
The Chiefs continued gearing up for their first preseason game Saturday. Going into game one, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo says his focus is always on tackling and block destruction
“I’m always going to be preaching guys let’s find a way to get off blocks and tackle, the rest will take care of itself, and we’ll build from there,” Spagnuolo says. “But if we’re not doing that in game one then I’ll be concerned you’ve got to go back to step one, et cetera, et cetera, so those will be big things.”
Kansas City takes on the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday on the road.
The Chiefs still practiced for just over two hours, even after moving inside. One more practice this week tomorrow at 9:15, before Saturday’s preseason game.
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