Patrick Mahomes had just fumbled the ball. It was deep in the fourth quarter and this one-sided Super Bowl had long been over.

Travis Kelce ambled off the field, removed his helmet and stood alone. He talked to nobody before walking away, sitting down on the bench and took it all in.

Kelce is usually at the center of everything the Chiefs do, from being a threat on the field to its biggest cheerleader off it. If Mahomes is the team’s brain, the tight end is its heart.

But Kelce was far away from the play again and nowhere near the action. Anybody concerned that Fox’s broadcast might get taken over by Kelce and Taylor Swift need not have worried. He was redundant and she had nothing to celebrate.

If this is to be Kelce’s NFL curtain call then he left without a whimper, finishing with four catches and 39 yards from six targets.

This performance will also lead to a greater inquest as to why he went out for dinner with his pop star girlfriend less than 48 hours before the biggest game of his life.

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Travis Kelce was anonymous as the Kansas City Chiefs were humiliated in the Super Bowl

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Kelce looked devastated on the bench after the Chiefs failed in their bid to do the three-peeat

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Taylor Swift had nothing to celebrate as the Eagles dominated Kelce and his Chiefs teammates

No one can know for sure what went through Kelce’s head when he decided to head for a French restaurant in the Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans on Friday night.

But it opened the door to his critics and their doubts that his attention was elsewhere.

When NFL history is on the line and, at 35, opportunities to win more Super Bowls are only going to decrease, why would you open yourself up to such scrutiny? It did not look good at the time. Now it looks irresponsible.

Mahomes should also take his portion of the blame, too. It was a double date after all. His performance, the worst of his career, suggests he’d have been better off resting up or watching tape in his hotel room.

Kelce said this week he could see himself playing for three more years. But reports emerged Saturday that his future is actually far less clear, and this sort of performance shows time is running out.

It was not a friendly goodbye for Kelce, either. When actor Jon Hamm took the microphone to introduce the Chiefs to field, the deafening boos that greeted them could be heard in Philadelphia.

Jason Kelce watched on as his little brother got booed by the fans who adore him. The jeering also extended to Swift when she appeared on the screens at both ends of the Superdome early in the game.

Kelce’s first opportunity to make his mark came on the Chiefs’ opening drive. It was second and nine when a pass over the middle by Mahomes looked like it would be a routine catch. That connection we have seen so many times before.

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Swift and Kelce stunned fans in New Orleans after they were spotted on a dinner date Friday

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Kelce is swarmed by Eagles defenders as he fails to hold onto a pass by Patrick Mahomes

Kelce was under pressure and couldn’t hold onto the pass. Just as he dropped the ball, a crunching hit to the back sent him tumbling to the ground.

He got up, shook it off and ran back to the huddle but it was an early error that contributed to the Chiefs having to punt the ball away.

To make things worse Dallas Goedert, in Kelce’s tight end shadow for much of the build-up, made his first play with no trouble. A simple catch on the move as the Eagles marched downfield and struck the first blow.

The Chiefs’ response was underwhelming to say the least as the Eagles defense swarmed Mahomes and gave up no ground for the rest of the first quarter.

An interception by Bryan Cook should have injected some energy into the Chiefs offense but they went three and out with Kelce failing collect another pass.

On third down, Mahomes looked for his tight end again. His pass was low and Kelce couldn’t scoop it up. Something was off, the friends were on different wavelengths.

They finally connected for the first time with just under three minutes left in the third quarter with an eight-yard pass and catch in the middle of the field. Mahomes nearly got picked off on the next play as the Eagles’ dominance continued.

At 34-0, with the Chiefs scrambling to avoid the indignation of being the first team to suffer a shutout in a Super Bowl, Mahomes found Kelce with a nice flick but the damage was done.

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Kelce finished with four catches and 39 yards from six targets and had no impact on the game

The Chiefs managed to rally to 40-22 but when Xavier Worthy scored his second touchdown to ease the embarrassment late on, Kelce was in no mood to celebrate.

As he slipped off the field and back to the locker room, he looked to be fighting back tears. He then admitted: ‘We just couldn’t find that spark, couldn’t find that momentum.’

Mahomes also called on his best friend to keep going, insisting Kelce ‘knows he still has a lot of football left’.

Kelce will surely not want to go out like this. But such an underwhelming performance on the biggest stage suggests time is definitely running out on his legendary career.