Travis Kelce wasn’t about to risk his health ahead of the NFL postseason – particularly with Derwin James looming in the Los Angeles Chargers secondary.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end opened this week’s episode of his New Heights podcast by addressing his absence from Sunday’s meaningless victory over LA, which he jokingly blamed on the fearsome Chargers safety who famously slammed him into the Arrowhead Stadium turf last season.

‘Did you want to explain to everybody why you elected not to play in the Chargers game?’ Eagles center and Travis’ brother Jason asked to open Wednesday’s episode.

‘I mean is it not obvious?’ Travis began. ‘You think I was trying to go out there and get f***ing power bombed by Derwin James again? F*** that? You kidding me? That was a bone-rattling hit, man. I’m trying to keep the blood flow going in this thing.’

But when asked, hypothetically, if he had a $1.25 million contract incentive riding on the game, Travis didn’t hesitate to do a 180: ‘I’d have been out there ruling! Sweating my a** off, out there every single play. You couldn’t take me off the field!’

Travis Kelce laughs alongside Patrick Mahomes while resting during Sunday’s win in LA

Of course, the decision to have Kelce sit for the finale was likely influenced by Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. And, with the AFC West already in hand, Kansas City had nothing to play for against Los Angeles – particularly given Travis’ history with James.

Travis was on the wrong end of a piledrive from James in September of 2022, which resulted in a costly fumble near the end zone. Kansas City won the game, but the night was remembered for James’ WWE-style slam on the All-Pro tight end.

‘The last thing you want is Derwin James without any regard for future games of suspension this season,’ Jason laughed.

‘He was flying around out there too, man,’ Travis said of James’ performance on Sunday, when he had a team-high eight tackles in the 13-12 Chargers loss.

But Travis did have some motivation to play Sunday, or at least he was expected to.

With 984 receiving yards for the season, Travis had the chance to reach 1,000 for the eighth consecutive season, thereby extending his record for a tight end.

But as he admitted to brother Jason, Travis actually didn’t care too much.

‘I was never into this,’ he said. ‘No, it never felt right to go out there chasing stats. I was kind of in and out of practice all week. For me to just jump in on game day to try and get 15, 16 yards or whatever it was, which is a lot harder than you guys think it is even though I had 100 and something against the Chargers earlier in the year. It is hard to do that twice against a team. It never felt right.’

And as Jason pointed out, Travis likely would have been defended ‘extra hard’ by the Chargers after putting up 179 yards against them in Week 6.

In the end, Travis admitted that he didn’t sit for health reasons or to protect himself against James, but rather because the game was meaningless and ‘it just didn’t feel right’ to chase stats when he had been in and out of practice all week.

‘If I could get some rest going into next week, stay off the turf in LA, avoid some hits, I was all for that to gear up for the playoffs here man,’ Travis said.

‘I don’t give a s*** about the records, one I’ve broken four times already. It is cool to know that but I’ve never sat here and said if I don’t get 1,000 yards my season was a failure.’

Jason relented, saying he was giving his brother a ‘hard time,’ while agreeing with the decision.

Kansas City hosts the Miami Dolphins on Saturday in the Wild Card round, while Philadelphia heads to Tampa Bay to face the Buccaneers on Monday.