Taylor x NFL | Graphic by Bethany Althauser | The Wright State Guardian
Beloved American pop star Taylor Swift and her budding relationship with National Football league player Travis Kelce is sending fandoms into frenzies.
Call It What You Want
On July 8, 2023, Taylor Swift performed the economy-boosting Eras Tour at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, MO. Some of the players from the 2023 Super Bowl-winning team, the Kansas City Chiefs, were in attendance. This included Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Following the concert, Travis Kelce said on his podcast, “New Heights,” which he shares with his brother, Jason Kelce, who plays for the 2023 Super Bowl-losing team, the Philadelphia Eagles, that he had made a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. Friendship bracelets are a big part of Swift’s fandom, with people making and trading them at each of her concerts. Travis Kelce said he had intended to give the bracelet to Taylor Swift but never got the chance to.
Not long after Kelce said this, Swift accepted an invitation to watch a Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium. There were reports that she and Kelce hung out a few times before she attended her first game on Sept. 24, 2023.
At this time, no one quite knew what to make of their relationship, since they had made no public appearances together.
Everything Has Changed
Football and Taylor Swift, more as the icon than the person, are similar. Both sell out stadiums, are divided into subcategories based on favorite team or album, have fans that have various understandings of the rules and lore and have fan bases that include all kinds of people but are mainly composed of one gender.
Taylor Swift’s attendance created an opportunity for the National Football League that they did not intend to pass up. That opportunity, of course, is the female gaze.
It is no wonder that the NFL decided to take what was potentially a once-in-a-lifetime chance to gain the attention of a large number of women. Taylor Swift is one of the most famous people in the world right now due to The Eras Tour’s wide and booming success. When Swift showed up at that first game on Sept. 24, it was still not known whether her attendance at games would be regular or not.
Superstar
Taylor Swift has since brought many other A-List celebrities along to the games, including Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively and Hugh Jackman. The NFL is spending a lot of time showcasing all the big names that have been in attendance at their recent games, but it has been too much in the opinion of many fans.
News outlets were at first reporting on Swift’s every move at the game, even commenting on the meal she ate and the sauces she used.
Travis Kelce has made several public comments in an attempt to get the media to calm down, and it still has not been fully successful. It is now clear that Swift will become a bit of a regular at these games, making whichever ones she can, so the coverage does not need to be as high as it has been even if it does give the NFL more female attention.
Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince
Taylor Swift has been known for her dating since she was a teenager and has been mocked for this throughout her career. Whether she wanted it or not, a lot of her relationships were very public from the beginning to the end. Some past love interests have been insecure about this or uninterested because of it. Travis Kelce, however, is not one of these.
In 2016, Travis Kelce had his own dating show, “Catching Kelce,” where he dated a woman from each of the 50 states in America.
It is clear that both Swift and Kelce have rich dating histories and are both okay with having a relatively public relationship. Kelce has made several statements about Swift on his podcast, where he seems ecstatic to talk about her.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have now made several appearances together where they are shown holding hands and laughing. They seem to be happy together and well-suited for each other. They have a lot of things in common, and despite some of the jokes that Swift’s fans have made, they are both very famous and successful apart from one another and celebrate this.
