Travis Kelce called out for apparent punch, dirty block against the Vikings
Travis Kelce may be the prince of football since he's dating the queen of music Taylor Swift, but there were a couple of moments in Sunday's Vikings-Chiefs game where Kelce's behavior was far from royal.
After Kelce injured his ankle slipping on the turf at US Bank Stadium, the star tight end appeared to deliver a punch to the gut of Vikings safety Josh Metellus, which came to the attention of Vikings analyst and former NFL player Ron Johnson.
It wasn't much of a punch since Metellus didn't really react, but Kelce definitely wound up his right arm and swung after Metellus attempted to punch the ball loose with Kelce on the ground.
So we gonna just ignore the Travis Kelce punch to Josh Metellus mid section? https://t.co/PpEQlz25oT
— Ron Johnson (@3RonJohnson) October 8, 2023
The other play comes with fewer questions, because Kelce was flagged for an illegal crackback block on Vikings edge rusher Danielle Hunter.
Face of the League pic.twitter.com/dtFlDusS9x
— Purple FTW! Podcast (@PurpleForTheWin) October 9, 2023
An illegal crackback block is a 15-yard penalty for blocking a defensive player below the waist within five yards of the line of scrimmage. The rule has been in place since 2012 and was implemented to prevent serious lower-body injuries to defenseless players.
That's precisely what Kelce did against Hunter, hitting him below the waist on a running play to Isaiah Pecheco. Hunter escaped without injury, fortunately.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.