Travis Kelce shares inside story of how Andy Reid changed Chiefs’ culture on Day 1
The Chiefs were coming off a dreadful 2-14 season when Andy Reid was hired as coach in 2013.
Months later, Reid and the Chiefs selected a tight end from Cincinnati in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Travis Kelce couldn’t have known it then, but he and Reid (and others) were about to usher in the most successful era in Chiefs history.
Earlier this month, Kelce talked about how Reid changed the Chiefs’ culture on the very first day of training camp. It came during a conversation with Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, and it’s worth noting as training camp starts in St. Joseph.
“I remember in ‘13, when you guys came in. We were such a veteran team,” Kelce said to Nagy. “The team may have just went 2-14, but we had Pro Bowlers. We had superstars. We had guys like that were at the top of their game, like Eric Berry, Justin Houston, when Alex (Smith) came in, Jamaal Charles — we had studs on both sides of the ball.
“Tamba Hali and Derrick Johnson, I could keep going. We had guys, right? Brandon Flowers, we had a whole bunch of studs.
“And it was crazy to me that one, this team went 2-14 the year before, but two, when coach Reid came in, I could tell the difference to this day of coach Reid’s demeanor in having to come in and break that culture. And don’t get me wrong, I have no idea what the situation was with the coaches before that, or anything, but I heard guys complaining nonstop about how much and how hard we were practicing. And nowadays you don’t hear anybody complaining. You just hear guys accept it.”
Reid’s grueling training camp work is the stuff of legend as current and former players have spoken about being put through their paces. Not that those players like it. But they know it’s what it takes to win.
Kelce noted the hard work paid off right away in 2013. The Chiefs won their first nine games and made the playoffs.
“It was a completely different situation back in ‘13 on the veterans that we had in there and how they were used to working and doing things, and how coach Reid came in and gave them a new perspective on it,” Kelce said. “And I really think that turnaround with that talent, you saw it immediately. We won the first (nine) games right off the bat, because of how much those veteran guys knew the game of football, played well together when they had that work ethic and how just, I don’t know, everything came together.
“But I’ll tell you what, man, I can only imagine how tough it is to go in there and demand that, that discipline and that trust in trying to break a system that hadn’t been successful.”
Nagy spoke about the aura Reid brought to the first meeting with the players after being hired by the Chiefs.
The change was immediate, said Nagy, who was the team’s quarterbacks coach in 2013.
“The entire team was in the team room, and those doors open, and he came walking in, and it was quiet,” Nagy recalled. “And I remember I was sitting in the corner, and I looked over and in the front row was all those dudes you just talked about: Tamba Hali, Justin Houston, Eric Berry, Dontari Poe, Dwayne Bowe, Jamaal Charles,. It goes on and on and on.
“They were literally sitting up in their seat with their hands on their knees, and their eyes were huge, and they were just staring at this guy. And the second I saw that, I was like, ‘They believe. This is what they needed. They believe.’”
This story was originally published July 21, 2025 at 8:51 AM with the headline "Travis Kelce shares inside story of how Andy Reid changed Chiefs’ culture on Day 1."
