NFL’s Teair Tart Trolls Travis Kelce After Slapping Him During Brazil Game

Los Angeles Chargers defensive tackle Teair Tart kept his feud with Travis Kelce going after the final whistle blew on the field in Brazil. 

Tart, 28, caused a commotion when he slapped Kelce, 35, across the head during the Chargers’ 27-21 victory over Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs in São Paulo on Friday, September 5. 

“I’m too swift with it even in Brazil…,” Tart posted via Instagram on Saturday, September 6, a reference to Kelce’s fiancée, Taylor Swift. 

In addition to a series of photos and videos from the game, Tart also posted a clip from the 2001 movie How High, in which Mike Epps’ character slaps another across the face. 

While Tart enjoyed gloating about his viral moment, not everybody in his comments was as gleeful about celebrating the slap. 

“The biggest highlight in your career is name dropping your colleague’s fiancee and slapping him lmao,” one person wrote. 

Another said, “Love that we swifties are making you and your ego hurt so much. Girl power 💅🏼.”

Kelce’s friend Taylor Lewan, cohost of the “Bussin With the Boys” podcast, even commented on Tart’s post. 

“Will smith’d the s*** outta Trav 😂,” Lewan, 34, wrote, a reference to Will Smith’s slap of Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. 

Tart was assessed a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness during the play, but was not ejected from the game. 

“According to [NFL officiating and rules analyst] Walt Anderson, they said because it was an open hand contact to the head that was not a disqualifying action,” rules analyst Terry McAulay said during the game’s broadcast on YouTube. “On this one, they felt that it was just an open hand blow to the head, not a closed fist, not a punch, and they did not disqualify in this case.”

After the game, Chargers head coach, Jim Harbaugh, discussed the impact of his team’s season-opening win over the three-time defending AFC champions. 

“It’s a big, big win,” Harbaugh told reporters. “Our guys really prepared for it, they worked extremely hard, and just throughout the course of the game you could tell our guys weren’t going to be denied. We were playing against a team, that’s how they play — they’re not going to be denied. Two opposing wills, two opposing forces, and we came out on top.”

The Chargers return to action on Monday, September 15, when they travel to Las Vegas to play the Raiders. 

Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are forced to go back to the drawing board after the quarterback blamed his team’s slow start on the loss. 

“Sometimes you’ve just got to do something to jump-start the team,” Mahomes said after the game. “I was not in the mood to be running out of bounds. I wanted to try to do something to get us going. We kind of got going as an offense in the second half, but it takes everybody. We’ve got to start faster — and we’ve got to be better on both sides of the ball and special teams.”

The Chiefs host the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles for their home opener on Sunday, September 14.