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 an appropriate start to the relationship between Reid, an old-school coach with rules he considers inviolate, and Kelce, a fun-loving tight end who proved Reid right in that he would test his patience plenty.