The NFL’s most dominant duo helped lead the Kansas City Chiefs to a ninth-straight division championship on Sunday.

After again helping lead the Kansas City Chiefs to a nail-biting victory on Sunday night, Patrick Mahomes gushed about his longtime teammate Travis Kelce and what he’s meant to him throughout his career.

“He means the world to me, man,” Mahomes, 29, told reporters after the Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Chargers 19-17 on a last-second field goal on Sunday, Dec. 9. “I mean 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 football field. Someone I can go to at any moment and he’s going to make a big play happen.”

Mahomes said Kelce, 35, has “never dropped off with his work ethic” and called him “the hardest working dude on the team,” predicting the record-breaking tight end will end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame once his career is finished.

“Everybody sees the personality on the TV and stuff like that but you don’t see that every day work ethic that he has,” Mahomes added. “He’s the guy that gets mad when they take him out of practice reps — that’s just the type of work ethic that he has. Even for me, to come into the league and have a superstar player and see him work like that, it kind of showed me I’m going to have to put that work ethic in if I’m going to get to that level.”

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

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The inspiration has paid off time-and-time again for Mahomes and Kelce, who have led the Chiefs to back-to-back Super Bowl championships and are top contenders for a third-straight NFL title come February.

Mahomes found Kelce late on the team’s final drive Sunday night to put them comfortably in field goal range as the clock ran out, winning their 12th game of the season and clinching the AFC West Division Championship. It’s the ninth year in a row the Chiefs have won the regular season division title, which is the second-most in a row behind Tom Brady and the New England Patriots winning the AFC East division 11 times in a row.

Kelce led the Chiefs again Sunday night with 45 yards on five receptions, surpassing 12,000 career receiving yards and becoming the fastest tight end in NFL history to do so.

Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes.

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Off the field, Mahomes and Kelce – who was a groomsman in Mahomes’ 2022 wedding to wife Brittany Mahomes – have enjoyed a close-knit friendship as they’ve continued to conquer the NFL.

“He’s just the life of the party,” Mahomes said about Kelce after their first Super Bowl-winning season. “He makes every single person feel like they’re the most important person in the world. He has that natural gift to really embrace and show love to everybody.”