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During the build-up to Super Bowl LIX this weekend, no one’s words have been more heavily scrutinised than Travis Kelce’s. That comes with the territory when you’re Mr Taylor Swift.
Being in a relationship with the most famous woman on the planet means that when you answer a question about Donald Trump becoming the first sitting US president in history to attend the NFL showpiece, your comments gain traction.
“I think no matter who the president is, I know I’m excited because it’s the biggest game of my life and having the president there… It’s the best country in the world. So, that’d be pretty cool,” Kansas City Chiefs star Kelce said, fairly innocuously, during a press conference earlier this week.
Cue online outrage.
Swift’s legion of fans were largely quick to condemn her boyfriend for tacitly supporting the presence of Trump, given the pop megastar’s history with the president.
Ahead of November’s US election, Swift endorsed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris as she released a lengthy Instagram post in which she concluded that Harris “fights for the rights and causes I believe”.
She signed off her post “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady” in a dig at the now vice-president JD Vance, who, in a dig at the then vice-president Harris, had claimed in a 2021 interview that the US was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too”.
Trump, naturally, responded to the endorsement by appearing on Fox News to state that he was “not a fan of Taylor Swift”.
The spat was one of the many subplots of that election campaign and while it may have been broadly put out of their minds by the wider public, given everything that has happened in American politics since, Swifties never forget – which means it still has resonance in Kelce’s life.
Not that he minds the limelight. In fact, both on and off the field, Kelce seems to thrive in it. In his day job, the 35-year-old is one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history.
A 10-time Pro Bowler and a seven-time All-Pro (four first-team and three second-team selections), he has had more seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards than any other TE in history and holds the record for most receiving yards in a single season by a player at his position – 1,416 in 2020.
For a stretch of time, he was simply uncoverable for defensive players – everyone knew that he was Patrick Mahomes’s favourite, and sometimes only, target yet they still couldn’t stop him. When he retires, he will go into the NFL Hall of Fame, likely as a first-ballot pick.
He has always had a knack for rising to the big occasion. As he hunts a fourth Super Bowl ring with the Chiefs on Sunday evening, he is already safe in the knowledge that he has more career postseason receptions (174), career postseason games with at least 100 receiving yards (nine) and career postseason games with at least one receiving touchdown (15) than any other player, regardless of position, in the history of the NFL.
When the light shines brightest, Travis Kelce steps up.
By his standards, he had a quiet regular season in 2024, amassing 97 catches for 823 yards (at just 8.5 yards per catch) and scoring only three touchdowns – the yardage, yards per catch and touchdown totals being the lowest since his 2013 rookie season when he played just one game.
Yet, against the Houston Texans in Kansas City’s play-off opener, he caught seven passes for 117 yards and a touchdown as the Chiefs battled to a 23-14 triumph.
He is definitely slowing down and his retirement date – enforced or otherwise – may be starting to come into view over the horizon but you’d be a brave person to bet against him having a big impact against the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans on Sunday.
And the man himself is adamant that the end is not nigh.
“I want to play as long as I can play,” Kelce said during the Super Bowl media day this week. “It’s months like these that make me feel like I can play forever. I’ve still got a lot of football left in me.”
When he does hang up his pads and helmet, Kelce won’t be short of opportunities outside American football. He already has his hugely popular podcast New Heights alongside his brother, former Eagles offensive lineman Jason, which was ranked as the eighth most popular show in the US on Apple Podcasts in 2024.
In his pre-Taylor Swift era, he was the centre of dating show Catching Kelce on E!, he has hosted Saturday Night Live, and will appear in the upcoming Adam Sandler film Happy Gilmore 2.
Of course, being the boyfriend of Swift also brings a huge amount of media coverage; speculation that he will propose to her at the Super Bowl on Sunday is rife. You can even bet on such an occurrence if you so wish.
Over the past two years, Kelce has become a celebrity beyond the world of American football. However, he’s still got unfinished business within the sport and Super Bowl LIX may prove to be the latest incredible addition to his glittering career CV.
