Travis Kelce has the opportunity to clinch his third Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas. The tight end’s relationship with Taylor Swift has been a focal point in the NFL this year.

Chris Jones perched a tablet on top of his locker and clicked play. The defensive tackle had just spent a few hours on his day job: marshalling the Chiefs’ defensive line. Now it was time for his part-time role.

Jones began his set as locker-room DJ and, before long, he had turned on the smoke machine too – Jones puffed on a thick cigar as he joined several teammates and staff for an impromptu photoshoot to celebrate victory over the Baltimore Ravens – and a fourth Super Bowl appearance in five years.

Cameras soon caught an intruder: Travis Kelce, stripped down to his underwear, entered stage right. He and Jones shook hands and bumped chests.

A few minutes later, however Kelce stood alone outside his locker. It was pretty bare: his cell phone, his clothes and a few cans of drink… his body, on the other hand? A mess. Cuts and scratches and grazes and nicks and those dark circles – the unmistakable scars of cupping therapy.

The Chiefs celebrations continued even after Kelce was led into a side room and on to a massage table. There, he sat quietly as, nearby, staff emptied the locker room and teammates headed to the after party. Through those double doors, medics tended to Kelce’s tapestry of war wounds.