Sauce Gardner is changing things for the Indianapolis Colts. For one, he is giving the team a higher profile. The former New York Jets cornerback has some natural charisma, and it certainly comes through on the field. A Midwest team, even one as good as Indy, can use the assistance.
The Kansas City Chiefs are always a huge draw, of course. This is partly because the team has been high-level successful over the last decade, but also because several interesting characters play on the team. One also happens to date the most popular entertainer in the world.
That would be tight end Travis Kelce, of course. Not the most popular entertainer, of course, because that would be his fiancee Taylor Swift. Instead, Kelce is a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, still fairly productive player, and co-host of the podcast New Heights, which he does with his brother, Jason.
Travis Kelce discusses playing against Indianapolis Colts cornerback Sauce Gardner
Kelce also played at the same college that Sauce Gardner did: Cincinnati. They didn't play on the same teams, of course, as Kelce is 11 years older than Gardner, but there is mutual respect between the two because of the common bond. When the teams met in Week 12, Kelce was looking forward to matching up against the other Bearcat.
That never materialized as the only time the two were close to each other, the pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes went elsewhere. Kelce addressed the matter on a recent episode of New Heights.
The tight end said, "I finally got my one-on-one with my dog (Gardner). That's all I wanted. I just wanted one-on-one...I felt like I kind of got open (on the one play Gardner covered Kelce). I'm just saying, I think Pat, if he would have came back to me, we would have had a completion. That's all I gotta say. No, man, I had so much respect for Sauce. Man, f****** love that guy."
That pretty much sums up Kelce in a nutshell: Full of confidence that he would catch a pass against the best cornerback in the NFL, but also appreciative of the guy who also went to Cincinnati. (There was no word on what Kelce thought about the game's other Cincinnati alum, Alec Pierce.)
Maybe the two great players will get to face off again, of course, but that would be in the playoffs. The Kansas City Chiefs are accustomed to making deep runs in the postseason, and the Indianapolis Colts might have the team to do so this season. Maybe the play that determines who moves on in the postseason will be decided when Mahomes throws a pass to Travis Kelce, covered by Sauce Gardner.