The internet is ablaze. NFL and Swiftie fandoms have been forced to interact. What were once two separate and (mostly) peaceful peoples are now being thrown together by 2023’s newest power couple: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
As any good Swiftie knows, Taylor herself doesn’t care for fan and media speculation about her relationships. Nevertheless, we cannot help but be allured by her tumultuous dating history. Fans often feel that because Swift frequently writes music containing honest and emotional details about her relationships, they are somehow entitled to intimate details about her life. I, myself can admit to being guilty of this. However, it is important to remember that any assumptions we may make about Travis and Taylor’s new relationship are just that: assumptions.
Taylor and Travis’ first public “interaction” was on July 8th, 2023, when the 33-year-old tight end for the Chiefs attended Swift’s “Eras Tour” concert in Kansas City. Travis stated in a later interview that he, “didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her.” This quickly sparked rumors about a possible relationship between the two. After Taylor had split from her long-term partner Joe Alwyn in April, she had briefly dated The 1975 front-man Matty Healy. This fling was received very poorly by fans, who were upset that Taylor would associate with someone who was known for his racist and transphobic comments. In contrast, early speculation about a possible Swift-Kelce relationship was overwhelmingly positive. Kelce might not have been a household name to many Taylor fans, but his relatively unproblematic background and stellar football record kept audiences intrigued and excited.
Gossip persisted over the next two months, with both Swift and Kelce coyly dodging media questions about their interactions. Finally, on September 24th, Swift was spotted at the Chiefs game with Kelce’s mother, seemingly confirming the relationship. Since then, Taylor has appeared at yet another of Travis’s games on October 1st, this time with celebrity friends Sophie Turner, Blake Lively, and Ryan Reynolds in attendance.
While Swift’s own fans appear to be very happy about her new beau, others haven’t been so warm to the idea. According to MSNBC columnist Dave Ziren, conservative football fans have now accused Kelce of “going woke” in response to his relationship with Taylor and earlier occurrences, such as his participation in Bud Lite commercials. Fellow NFL player Aaron Rodgers even went so far as to call Kelce, “Mr. Pfizer,” in reference to his appearance in an advertisement promoting flu and Covid-19 vaccines. Despite backlash from right-wing viewers, the NFL is attempting to capitalize as much as they can from association with Swift. According to Yahoo! Finance, the October 1st Chiefs game drew an impressive 27 million viewers, including a 53% increase in viewership among teen girls. Travis Kelce jersey sales increased by a shocking 400%, and his social medias have seen similar boosts. As a result the NFL, and particularly the Chiefs, have launched several social media campaigns focusing on Taylor and Travis’s relationship to draw in her fans. My personal favorite is a Tik Tok posted from the Chiefs official account in which the team members adorably trade friendship bracelets, in reference to the Eras Tour tradition. Swift herself has seen more modest boosts in attention, with a 2.25% increase in Spotify listenership. However, one can only wonder if this intense media attention, positive and negative, is healthy for the new relationship.
If nothing else, our obsession with Taylor and Travis’s relationship seems reductive. The two have both had incredibly successful careers and continue to break records and amaze audiences, shouldn’t that be what we care about the most? Still, it is human nature to speculate about things we don’t know, especially when it comes to celebrities. However, as Swift herself sings, “In your life you’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team.” She certainly has.
