Was American football player Travis Kelce fined $10 million for taking a knee during the national anthem, as a post on Facebook said? No, that's not true: This story began as an article by SpaceXMania, a self-described fake news website known for publishing content it says is satire. There is no publicly available or credible evidence to support the story.
A version of the claim was shared on Facebook on August 19, 2024 (archived here) with a caption that read:
Travis Kelce took a knee during the national anthem, a move that cost him a staggering $10 million fine and an immediate ejection from the game
Here is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Tue Aug 20 18:35:49 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search revealed that the claim originated in a satirical article published by SpaceXMania (archived here) in October 2023, titled, "Breaking: Travis Kelce Faced with a $1 Million Fine for Anthem Kneeling on His Birthday."
This is how the SpaceXMania article appeared at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: SpaceXMania screenshot taken Fri Aug 23 16:47:01 2024)
The screenshot above shows that the story was filed in the website's Satire section. The post on Facebook did not include a disclaimer that said it came from a satirical article.
SpaceXMania is a self-described "fake news" website. Its About Us (archived here) page reads:
Welcome to our website, owned and operated by Funky Productions LLC. We are a team of writers and editors based in New York, USA. Our mission? To bring you the freshest fake news, some sassy analysis, and a good dose of satire, all rolled into one crazy concoction that orbits around Elon Musk and everything that's lighting up the viral/trending charts.
The post on Facebook also included a link (archived here) in the comments to a website that published the same SpaceXMania article on August 20, 2024, (archived here) without any disclaimer that the article was satirical.
A reverse image search also returned an article published by People on January 24, 2019 (archived here) that included one of the images in the Facebook post. By using the image caption, Lead Stories traced the photo back to the photo-video agency Getty Images (archived here). The photo's caption noted that the football player was kneeling during training camp in August 2018 -- not during a game-time performance of the national anthem:
NFL: AUG 05 Chiefs Training Camp
ST. JOSEPH, MO - AUGUST 05: Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) kneels on the sidelines during training camp on August 5, 2018 at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, MO. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Through a Google Lens search, Lead Stories found (archived here) that the second photograph in the post on Facebook, which shows Kelce with a towel over his head, was published by the image-platform Alamy (archived here) and taken during a 2023 training camp. A description with that photo read:
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce wraps a towel around his head after NFL football training camp Sunday, July 23, 2023, in St. Joseph, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Lead Stories searched on Google News, using keywords that can be seen here, and found no credible documents, NFL statements or news reports to confirm the claim that the Kansas City Chiefs tight end was fined for taking a knee.
Other fact check agencies, including PolitiFact and USA Today, have also reviewed this claim.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Travis Kelce can be found here.
