Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce just re-wrote the playbook when it comes to love songs and touchdowns. Two years of love that was like something straight out of a John Hughes film, the pop superstar and the NFL champion are now engaged. And yes, Swifties and football fans everywhere are losing their collective minds.
The Big Reveal
Swift broke the news Tuesday on Instagram in a post only a wit such as she can devise: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”
The post also featured a romantic photo carousel: Kelce on bended knee among a field of flowers, Taylor beaming in a stripy sundress with hair blown by the wind, and Travis in a navy collared button-down and white shorts. pièce de résistance, naturally, was Swift’s close-up of her stunning brilliant-cut diamond ring, courtesy of Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry, a sparkler worthy of pop royalty.
In minutes, friends, followers, and other celebs swarmed the comments. Brittany Mahomes, Patrick Mahomes’ (Kansas City Chiefs teammate of Kelce’s) wife raved in her Instagram Story: “Two of the nicest people on planet earth run into each other & fall in love. So happy for these two.”
From Friendship Bracelets to Forever
This is larger than an affair of the heart, it’s an epic that has been playing out for fans since Kelce famously attempted to trade Swift’s cell phone number for her own on a friendship bracelet following her 2023 Eras Tour. That brash effort didn’t pan out then but ignited the extremely publicized hunt that eventually led them to their front door. On his New Heights podcast, Kelce chuckled that he was “butt-hurt” that the bracelet didn’t reach Swift’s hand. Taylor continued to explain just how shocked she was by his over-the-top act of devotion: “It was such a crazy, romantic gesture… like from one of those ’80s John Hughes movies. If this guy is not crazy, which was a big if, this is the stuff that I’ve been writing songs about since I was a teenager.”
As it happened, Kelce was out of his mind, absolutely love-crazy.
The Podcast That Made It Possible
Swift has attributed the beginning of the relationship to New Heights, laughing: “This podcast got me a boyfriend.” She has complimented Kelce for having been so openly and vulnerably out there.
Kelce then claimed the real trigger was her Eras Tour: “If I never would’ve gone to that show and been enchanted, and left with this nutty desire to come and visit you, I’d never have gone and gone to the podcast and told everybody how butt-hurt I was.”
Not even his own brother, Jason Kelce, could resist a jab: “Best of that sentence is that you never knew what the word engulfed meant until you met Taylor.”
An Easy Feelin’ of Love
When he discusses Taylor, you sense he is not only in love but reborn. “You watch her on stage and she’s commanding a stadium, and then I get her in a room and it’s like I’ve been familiar with her my whole life. It was just the easiest talk I ever had. It took my socks off. She completes me.”
Swift responded in turn the nicest she could in their most recent podcast discussion, holding her face and saying: “Just circling back to ‘New Heights’ to say thank you for this.”
