A Dallas middle schooler’s family claims the luchador wrestling mask Jason Kelce wore while partying with his brother Travis and the Chiefs after Kansas City’s Super Bowl win belongs to their son — and now they want the “lucky” mask back.
Kelce, 36 admitted on the recent episode of their podcast “New Heights” that he found the mask on the dance floor in Las Vegas on Sunday.
“It didn’t start getting to the next level until I found that luchador mask,” Jason Kelce said during the podcast. “Initially, when I first got there, you (Travis) were trying to get me to go up on the stage with you, and I was like, ‘Nah, I’m gonna be over here. This is your guys’ time.’”
“There’s something about finding that luchador mask that really just transformed the night.”
The Eagles center even apologized to the person that the mask belonged to, but little did he know the owner would come forward.
Elijah Smith, an 8th grader from Dallas and a mega Chiefs fan, gave Kelce the mask after the pair took a picture together, according to NBC.
But in the confusion of the team’s win, he never got it back.
“I gave him my mask and then he dropped it and then picked it back up,” Smith told the outlet Thursday.
“Then I got a picture with him wearing it and then I just hung out next to them for five to ten minutes, they were dancing and everything.”
Smith and his friends lost sight of Kelce in the crowd after the picture, and he never got his mask back.
“I saw videos on Instagram this week of him wearing it at the next afterparty he went to, so he clearly never took it off the whole night,” Smith said.
Smith and his parents, Thad and Sarah, say they need their good luck charm returned before the start of next season.
The family knows that the mask belongs to their son because of one distinct detail: a massive autograph from Chiefs player Trent McDuffie from last year’s Super Bowl afterparty is on the side.
“Last year when I wore it in Arizona, I feel like every single time I put it on we would score a touchdown,” the young Chiefs super fan told the outlet.
The mask has been with the Smiths for the Chiefs’ last four Super Bowl appearances and is seen as the family’s unofficial lucky charm.
“The only thing is Jason, if you’re listening, we just need the mask back before the season starts,” Thad Smith told the outlet.
“It’s a lucky mask, and so the Chiefs need the luck. I’m sorry we’re not Eagles fans.”
However, the Smiths hold no bad blood against the future Hall of Fame center for enjoying the mask during the team’s celebration and are happy to see another Lombardi Trophy for the Chiefs Kingdom.
“He was happy. He was excited. There was so much celebrating going on and dancing. And you couldn’t help but be excited,” the boy’s mom, Sarah Smith, told the outlet.
“I asked him when we got to the room, ‘Wait, he has your mask?’ And he’s like ‘Yea’ and I said ‘Are you upset?’ And he just wasn’t upset, he was a little bummed because it’s his autographed mask with Trent McDuffie, that was upsetting, but at the end of the day we were all celebrating a Super Bowl win,” the mom said.
Hoping that the mask will end back up in their hands before next season kicks off, Elijah said, “It would be pretty cool if he autographed it and sent it back.”
Though the Smiths are currently maskless, the energy Kelce brought wearing the luchador to the Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration is unmatched.
“I saw Jason, and he was the life of the party, man,” Patrick Mahomes said in a “Good Morning America” segment about the team’s Las Vegas, star-filled afterparty.
“Those Kelce brothers, man, they’re the life of the party wherever they go.”
