How Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid unlocked Travis Kelce - ESPN

ANDY REID STILL recalls the first time he met Travis Kelce, after one of Kelce's games while he was still at the University of Cincinnati. He remembers thinking it was going to take patience — lots of patience — if he were to ever coach this player.

Kelce treated Reid like a long-lost friend more than a new acquaintance. He called the veteran coach «big fella.»

«He was being Travis, being cocky,» Reid said. «Jiminy, he was cocky.»

It was a fitting start to the relationship between Reid, an old-school coach, and Kelce, a fun-loving tight end who proved Reid right in that he would test his patience plenty.

Even recently, in Reid and Kelce's 11th season together with the Kansas City Chiefs, the two clashed on the sideline after Kelce slammed his helmet in frustration during an ugly Christmas Day loss to the Las Vegas Raiders at home. Reid instructed an equipment manager to not immediately return the helmet to Kelce and had some words for him before eventually sending him back into the game.

But things generally have worked out as well as Reid and Kelce could have hoped. Under Reid's tutelage, Kelce has become one of the greatest tight ends of all time. He is fourth all-time among players at his position in catches and receptions. He is no longer the undisciplined and cocky kid Reid met that day in Cincinnati, and yet, in many ways he hasn't changed at all.

«For Travis, Coach Reid has almost been like that uncle you have that you listen to and get advice from,» quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. «He makes Travis a great football player but I think even a better person. He has a good feel for getting on Travis when he needs that motivation, but at the same time he lets Travis be who he is.»

TIGHT ENDS COACH Tom Melvin could