KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nearly 80,000 fans are expected to pack Arrowhead Stadium to watch the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs play the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night in a rematch of the AFC championship game, lifting the lid on the NFL season.
Many will also be looking forward to Taylor Swift’s appearance in one of the stadium suites.
The pop superstar became one of the Chiefs’ biggest fans last season when she began a high-profile romance with tight end Travis Kelce. He wasn’t able to get a friendship bracelet delivered at one of her concerts, so Kelce took to social media to invite Swift to a game, and the “Anti-Hero” singer showed up for a September matchup with the Bears .
They continued to see each other throughout the season, whenever Swift was on break from her Eras Tour. The 14-time Grammy winner even made a much-publicized sprint from a stadium show in Japan to Las Vegas in time for the Super Bowl, where she partied with friends like Blake Lively and enjoyed Post Malone’s performance of “America the Beautiful.” won what seemed like a beer-drinking contest, then celebrated the Chiefs’ triumph by locking lips with Kelce on the field.
Along the way, Swift became good friends with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany.
During this past offseason, Kelce was a regular at the Eras Tour and even made a cameo on stage. Swift later said in a social media post that she was still “panicking/swooning over (Kelce’s) Eras Tour debut” in front of 90,000 screaming fans at Wembley Stadium in London, and that “she would never forget these shows.”
It was indeed a busy offseason for both superstars.
Swift recently wrapped up the European leg of the Eras Tour with five consecutive shows at Wembley Stadium, and she’s on a break until October, when she begins the North American leg with stops in the US and Canada stretching into December.
Kelce and his brother, retired Eagles center Jason Kelce, recently struck a deal reportedly worth nine figures to bring their “New Heights” podcast to Amazon’s Wondery. He will appear in Ryan Murphy’s murder mystery “Grotesquerie” on FX, which debuts on September 25, and he will host “Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity” on Prime Video, which premieres on October 16.
Then there’s the fact that the Chiefs, who have won two straight Super Bowls and three in the last five years, will be chasing a piece of history starting Thursday night. No team has ever won the Lombardi Trophy three times in a row.
Kelce was asked this week how he juggles it all, and he pointed to the Chiefs’ practice facility — and Arrowhead Stadium, which is just up the hill and across the parking lot — as his sanctuary, where he’s surrounded by his best friends.
“I just love football and how it takes me away from life,” he explained, “and it gives me something that I can be genuinely happy about. I enjoy coming into the building, working on my craft, understanding a new game plan and perfecting it for the people around me. It gives me a purpose to go about my day and live my life. I’m so excited to do it.”
However, not everything went smoothly for Swift and Kelce this season.
Last month, Swift canceled three sold-out shows in Vienna after the CIA uncovered information leading to multiple arrests of men linked to the Islamic State group. The agency’s deputy director, David Cohen, said: “They intended to kill a large number – tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I’m sure many Americans – and were quite advanced in doing so.”
Then on Thursday, a spokesperson for Kelce denounced a document recently posted online that questioned the authenticity of their romance as “completely false and fabricated.” The document, titled “Comprehensive Media Plan For Travis Kelce’s Relationships Following Breakup With Taylor Swift,” was posted to Reddit but has since been deleted.
It was posted around the same time Kelce appeared on “The Rich Eisen Show,” where he discussed their relationship.
“She was just so open to learning the game,” Kelce said. “I think what makes her so good at her craft is that she is so detailed in every aspect of it, from the words to her music and even the releases and the music videos and everything. She is so detail-oriented and part of the job that I think she was just curious about the profession.”
Kelce even said Swift had started drawing up some plays for him, though he noted with a smile, “She’s a little biased and only makes plays for me. So we’ll see if they can make coach (Andy) Reid’s office.” “
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