Travis Kelce intentionally took a celebration penalty with his dunk as a cool tribute to Tony Gonzalez

As we saw earlier in Wednesday’s Christmas Day matchup between the Chiefs and Steelers, there are some celebrations that can draw penalties — even under the NFL’s relaxed celebration rules. But in Travis Kelce’s case, he took the penalty on purpose.

And there was an awesome reason for it.

Kelce entered the Week 17 matchup tied with Tony Gonzalez atop the Chiefs’ franchise leaderboard for touchdown receptions. Back in Gonzalez’s playing days, players were allowed to dunk over the goal post, and it became Gonzalez’s signature celebration. That was until Jimmy Graham’s dunk in 2013 bent the post and caused a delay against the Falcons. The league responded by banning dunks, but Kelce knew he had to pay tribute to the Chiefs legend regardless.

HOLIDAY TOUCHDOWN FOR TRAVIS pic.twitter.com/sqgtsd0r1K

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) December 25, 2024

After Kelce hauled in that record-setting touchdown in the fourth quarter, he immediately went to the post and showed he had just enough hops at 35 to pull off the dunk. Kelce was indeed penalized for the celebration, but he shouldn’t expect to pay the fine for it.

Gonzalez already said he would personally pay the fine if Kelce decided to dunk after breaking the record.

"If he dunks it, I will pay that fine!"@TonyGonzalez88 wants to see @tkelce do his celebration if he passes his franchise TD record today!#BlackFridayNFL | @Chiefs pic.twitter.com/S2Yws2OHz0

— NFL on Prime Video (@NFLonPrime) November 29, 2024

That’s respect right there.