All winning teams face tension at some point — it can come from that rare defeat, it can come from a place of ultra-competitiveness, it can come from being around the same personalities day in and day out for months at a time.

Even though the Kansas City Chiefs have a 12-1 record that is the envy of the NFL, cracks have emerged in the two-time defending Super Bowl champions’ foundation. The Chiefs have played a high number of close, one-score games and have remarkably won all of them, accruing a 10-0 record based on paying attention to the details. Living on the edge so often has produced tension between stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce as they pursue NFL immortality in the form of a Super Bowl three-peat.

As the Eras Tour ends…the Super Bowl hunt begins

The Chiefs’ win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night saw Kansas City clinch its ninth successive AFC West division title — an achievement that Kelce called “another check mark off the list”. Winning the AFC West is not just a goal, it’s an expectation for the Chiefs — one that gets harder each year for Kelce, who has had an up-and-down age 35 season in the NFL.

This season has unfolded against the backdrop of Kelce’s relationship with pop superstar Taylor Swift, whose 149-show Eras Tour came to end in Canada on Sunday. With Swift set to “recharge her batteries” for a while after such a grueling tour, Kelce can focus on “repairing” his connection with Mahomes — and on Sunday, they took a big step toward proving their playoff readiness.

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With the Chiefs trailing 17-16, Mahomes drove his team down the field in the dying minutes to set up Matthew Wright‘s game-winning 31-yard field goal. Mahomes’ final pass was a lobbed third-down completion to Kelce — a play that set up Wright’s winner.

“He means the world to me,” Mahomes told ESPN about Kelce, a tried-and-true warrior. “Without getting emotional, he’s a guy that has really kind of made me who I am in my career. He’s a true leader on the field, (someone) that I can just go to at any moment, and he’s going to make a big play happen, and as he’s done throughout his career.”