Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce confirmed that he and pop superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift knew each other for about a month when she initially attended his game against the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium on September 24, 2023.
“We had known each other for close to a month up to that point,” Kelce said during an appearance on 'the Pat McAfee Show' Wednesday (January 31), 11 days prior to the Chiefs' Super Bowl LVIII matchup against the San Francisco 49ers.
Kelce also confirmed that Swift had already planned to attend the September 24 game when he publicly teased an invitation to her on McAfee's show days prior.
“It wasn’t just an out-of-the-blue, ‘Hey, come to the game,'” he added.
Kelce addressed criticism the couple has received since going public with their relationship, specifically from some NFL fans.
"Hopefully everybody realizes that we're just two people in a relationship supporting each other and having fun with it," Kelce said. "It's nothing more than that and how much the world wants to paint the picture and make us the enemy we just have fun with it and we enjoy every single bit of it.
"Sure enough, I love it when Taylor comes and supports me and enjoys the game with the fam and the friends, it's been nothing but just a wonderful year."
Kelce then confirmed that he and Swift are aware of the criticism but choose to ignore it.
"She's dealt with it forever. We hear it but we hardly ever talk about it. It's nothing to even talk about, nothing to really bring up."
Swift has attended all of the Chiefs' games that haven't conflicted with her touring schedule since September and is expected to attend Super Bowl LVIII despite a scheduled 'Eras Tour' concert in Japan on the same weekend. Some NFL fans have criticized the coverage dedicated to Swift's attendance and relationship with Kelce, while others have celebrated it, as the singer "has generated an equivalent brand value of $331.5 million for the Kansas City Chiefs and the NFL," Apex Marketing Group recently confirmed to Front Office Sports.
Swift broke her silence on her relationship with Kelce while being featured as Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year' last month.
Swift praised Kelce for "adorably" putting her "on blast" when he revealed on his 'New Heights' podcast last July that he attempted and failed to give her a bracelet with his phone number while attending her 'Eras Tour' concert in Kansas City. Swift added that the two had spent "significant" time together before she initially attended a Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium in September, at which point they were already "a couple."
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Swift said. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”
“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Swift added. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
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