Even Bill Belichick is talking about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
'I would say that Travis Kelce has had a lot of big catches in his career. This would be the biggest.'
NBC’s "Sunday Night Football" game this week features Kansas City at the New York Jets. When it was first announced, network executives no doubt salivated over the ratings gold of Patrick Mahomes vs. Aaron Rodgers.
Well, Rodgers is hurt, the Jets are awful and the game could be a blowout by the second quarter.
Now they can only hope Travis Kelce doesn’t blow it with his new ... girlfriend? ... and Taylor Swift shows up in a luxury box at MetLife Stadium to cheer him on.
Welcome to the NFL Season —Taylor’s version, where NFL TV ratings could be impacted not by someone on the field, but someone on the bleachers.
"I would say that Travis Kelce has had a lot of big catches in his career,” New England coach Bill Belichick said on WEEI of the Chiefs star tight end. “This would be the biggest."
Yes, that’s 71-year-old Bill Belichick, who talks about nothing, coming with jokes.
What in the world is going on? Look, Taylor Swift is Taylor Swift but it’s not like this is the first celebrity girlfriend/wife in the NFL. No less than Tom Brady was married to Gisele Bundchen, who was the highest-paid supermodel in the world.
It never created this much of a frenzy.
“I set them up,” quipped Chiefs coach Andy Reid after Swift watched KC beat Chicago 41-10 while standing next to Kelce’s mother in a luxury box.
A couple items there:
1) She not only already met mom, but was left alone with mom for three hours.
2) Let’s all rejoice that we’ve finally found a way to overshadow Jackson Mahomes’ TikTok work.
Kelce, as the story goes, wanted to shoot his shot with the 12-time Grammy winner this summer when she played Arrowhead Stadium. He arrived with a friendship bracelet (it’s a Swiftie thing) that included his phone number. (Pretty smooth).
Yet as much as Kelce runs Kansas City, getting close enough to give Swift a gift proved too much. He was left dreaming about the day when she’d wake up and find that what she was looking for has been here the whole time.
Through Kelce’s numerous media appearances, not to mention the very popular podcast he does with his brother, the story got enough traction that Swift heard about it. Next thing you know, rumors were swirling.
“I threw the ball in her court,” Kelce said on "The Pat McAfee Show" last week. “I told her, ‘I’ve seen you rock the stage in Arrowhead, you might have to come see me rock the stage in Arrowhead and see which one is a little more lit.' ”
Next thing you know, Taylor Swift arrived in KC.
“He told me at like the last minute,” Patrick Mahomes said. “There’s something with Travis where he kind of just says it, and you don’t know if it’s true or not. He says it’s so calmly … it was Friday, and he was just like, ‘Uh yeah, I think she’s coming to the game [Sunday],’ and then just moved about his business to the game this weekend.”
Mahomes said that he felt pressure to get Kelce a touchdown to impress her.
The Bears are awful so it wasn’t too much of a challenge, but suddenly the National Football League felt like some high school game somewhere with a loyal QB acting as a wingman so his buddy could impress the girl from the next town over.
What’s next for the couple is anyone’s guess. Videos, still shots and quotes are everywhere. Sports analysts are even breaking down the chances this works — there is probably nothing like Stephen A. Smith commenting on your relationship like it’s the New York Knicks draft class.
Meanwhile, the Swifties on TikTok are introducing each other to who Travis is, what kind of person he might be and whether he will eventually be the subject of a brutal break-up song.
Put it this way, is Jake Gyllenhaal’s greatest artistic contribution his groundbreaking role in Brokeback Mountain, or so double-crossing Taylor’s mind that she wrote "All Too Well?"
That’s the risk, of course. Kelce may want to be cautious talking too freely about work. The Chiefs don’t need a power ballad about locker room karma on the next album.
In the meantime, good luck to them. One date and the NFL has been flipped on its head. Even Bill Belichick is watching.
