Teary Travis Kelce hugged brother Jason at Super Bowl – he may not have been there without him
The Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles in NFL Week 11 in a repeat of Super Bowl LVII.
The Chiefs emerged victorious in last season's showpiece event which saw brothers Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce go head-to-head.
The Kelces made NFL history by becoming the first siblings to face off in the Super Bowl - which became known as the 'Kelce Bowl' due to their involvement.
Travis got the better of his older brother as Kansas City beat Philly, 38-35.
As the Chiefs players celebrated their historic victory, cameras panned to the brothers sharing an emotional embrace.
"Come here," Jason told his younger brother while pulling him in for a hug. "Good job, Travis. Congratulations."
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"I love you, big guy," a teary-eyed Travis replied. "I love you, too. Good job," Jason said. "Go celebrate."
Travis could be then heard saying, "I don't know what to tell you, big guy" as his brother insisted for him "go celebrate."
"I love you," Jason then told Travis before adding that it had been the "Funnest year of my life."
After the gravity of the moment began to set in, Travis tried to explain what it meant coming up against his sibling.
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"There's nothing you can really say to a loved one in a situation like that," he told reporters. "You joke around all the time you want to beat your brother in the biggest stage ever, but it's a weird feeling.
"There's nothing I could really say to him other than I love him and he played a hell of a year, a hell of a season," Travis added.
It was undoubtedly an incredibly emotional moment for those closest to the Kelces. But it was also a moment that may never have happened at all.
Back when Travis was at the University of Cincinnati, he was still an aspiring quarterback yet to discover his full potential as a tight end.
He encountered trouble in 2010 when the Bearcats suspended him for the entire season for a violation of team rules which turned out to be a failed drug test for marijuana.
Jason was in his senior year at the time and begged all of the coaches to give his little brother another chance. He also set out a list of things Travis had to accomplish in order to get back to playing football.
"I'm forever thankful for that conversation," Travis Shannon Sharpe on his 'Club Shay Shay' podcast.
"It took a lot of guts for him to be able to go in there and put his name on the line for myself knowing that I threw this scholarship away and down the drain like it didn't mean anything to me.
"It was a moment where I had to grow up and become a man.
"I'm just thankful for everybody at the University of Cincinnati that guided me in the right direction and my brother who was at the forefront."
It's no exaggeration to say that without Jason's intervention Travis may never have ended up in the NFL.
With his brother's help, Travis returned to the team to start the 2011 season where he began to play the tight end position.
“What [the suspension] did was it really kicked me into the tight end room,†Kelce told the . “I was still playing QB then. It was like, ‘Alright, you can come walk on the team, but we don’t need a quarterback. You can just be an athlete on scout team for a year, we’ll figure it out.’â€
The rest, as they say, is history. Travis finished his 35-game career with the Bearcats with 59 receptions for 875 yards and 10 touchdowns and was named First-team All-Big East in 2012.
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He was eventually drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round (63rd pick overall) of the 2013 NFL Draft where he has won two Super Bowls and become an eight-time Pro Bowler.
The younger Kelce has a number of NFL records and is widely regarded as one of the greatest TEs ever, but it may not have ever come to fruition without the support of brother Jason.