Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce further cemented himself as an all-time franchise great when he broke the Chiefs’ career touchdown record. Kelce caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the fourth quarter of the Chiefs’ 29-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, a touchdown that officially tied Tony Gonzalez’s previous record of 76 career touchdowns with the franchise broke.

“He’s done so much for this organization, on and off the field,” Mahomes said of Kelce after the game. “For him, the career he had is special. I know at the end of the day he wants to win the ring more than anything, but it’s great that he can achieve this.”

Surprisingly, it took 17 weeks into the 2024 season for the record to be broken. Kelce entered the season with 74 career touchdowns, but caught just his third touchdown of the season in Wednesday’s win. Mahomes had hoped Kelce would break the record at home at Arrowhead Stadium, but this was Kelce’s first touchdown since November 10th. Kelce tied Gonzalez’s record for receiving touchdowns at home.

“I was extremely excited,” Mahomes told the media after the game. “I’ve been trying to get him a touchdown the last few weeks and I wanted to do it at Arrowhead…I’m glad we got it done in the regular season and now we can just play football.”

Kelce is now the Chiefs’ all-time leader in receptions, yards and touchdowns. He passed Gonzalez in all three categories and earned the respect of the Hall of Fame tight end in the process. Over his 12-year NFL career, Kelce caught 1,004 passes for 12,151 yards and 77 touchdowns. While Gonzalez has totaled more receptions, yards and touchdowns in his career, much of that production came from his time with the Atlanta Falcons.

Gonzalez remains the NFL’s all-time leader among tight ends in both receiving yards (1,325) and receiving yards (15,127) throughout his career. The leading all-time tight end in receiving touchdowns is Antonio Gates, who has caught 116 touchdowns over his career. Kelce ranks third in career receptions and receiving yards among tight ends and fifth in career touchdowns. While he’s already a surefire Hall of Famer and undoubtedly one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history, he still has a long way to go before he approaches Gonzalez’s or Gates’ records.