Decades after the Beastie Boys had made it a rallying cry for the youth of the 1980s, Travis Kelce made "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" a catch phrase of his own and a rallying cry for Chiefs Kingdom.
It would seem CBS' Jim Nantz deserves hefty thanks for the memorable moment, as well.
Nantz was only supposed to speak with head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes on stage following the Kansas City Chiefs' AFC Championship Game win over the Tennessee Titans in the 2019 season. Despite the producers in his ear, Nantz called over Kelce, and the boisterous star tight end took it from there.
"They're saying, in my ear, do not (ask) another question," Nantz recalled recently on Travis and Jason Kelce's "New Heights" , . "So, I said, 'Hey, before we go, Travis, come over here real quick.' It was the first time you went on the '(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!).'"
Kansas City's 35-24 triumph that day clinched the Chiefs' first Super Bowl berth in 50 years, whilst birthing the NFL's next dynasty. Thus, it wasn't the last time Kelce would bellow about the Chiefs' and their fans' right for revelry, but it was certainly memorable -- and, according to Nantz, it wasn't supposed to happen.
"There was a show premiering on CBS after an AFC Championship Game. ... You got someone, not running commentary, but a producer, telling you where you need to go next," Nantz said. "So, I got up there with the Lamar Hunt Trophy, and I've got Clark Hunt, and I've got Andy over here, and I got Patrick. And [Travis is] on the outside of Patrick, and they're telling me, 'We've got to get through this. Make it really fast. No follow-up questions, just one question to the coach and one question to Pat.'"
Nantz, seeing a gleam in Kelce's eye and a moment in the making perhaps, went rogue.
He almost immediately regretted it as Kelce's call to celebration hung in the air with the fear of an expletive dancing in the venerable commentator's mind.
"The 'F' in fight dragged on so long," Nantz said.
All was well that ended well, though -- thankfully for Nantz.
"And I thought, not only have I been guilty of insubordination, I just walked into an F-bomb on the CBS television network, maybe," Nantz said. "And I was so relieved that the word came out with an F-I instead of an F-whatever. And it was, '(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!).' And I said, 'You got it, we're out of here. James Brown, back to you.' And you made the whole thing sing."
Two weeks later, Kelce won his first Super Bowl with the Chiefs. Two more would follow, leading to plenty of parties after myriad fights to the top.
