She wears short skirts, I wear Kansas City Chiefs jerseys.
It’s Taylor Swift’s world, and the rest of us are just living in it. Anything the “Cruel Summer” singer does seems to be making headlines these days, especially her rumored romance with Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce. The hype around the two hasn’t died down, so similar to how you would do your research as soon as your BFF tells you about a new man in their life, Swifties have already gone to great lengths to become Kelce fans by learning what they can about football and buying his merch.
ICYMI, the Super Bowl champ shot his shot with Swift by inviting her to his game against the Chicago Bears on Sept. 24, and despite being the biggest musician in the world right now, she accepted. Fans of both Swift and the NFL couldn’t get enough of seeing the singer cheering on the Chiefs from the stands during the game, and Swifties really took the moment and ran with it. Even though Swift and Kelce have not confirmed whether they’re officially dating, that hasn’t stopped Swifties from fully embracing the union. As one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Football guys and Swifties coming together is weirdly cute.”
If you thought Swift’s fans were great at solving puzzles to find album release easter eggs, just see how dedicated they are to learning everything you need to know about Kelce. From buying up jerseys to nailing football lingo, here’s how the fandom has embraced the relationship rumors.
After Swift’s appearance at the Kansas City Chiefs game, sales for Kelce’s jersey apparently went up nearly 400%. It’s give very much, I saw Taylor Swift wearing Kansas City Chefs merch, so I bought Kansas City Chiefs merch.
If the relationship rumors are true, it’s likely that Swift will be appearing at more games in the future before heading back out on the second leg of her Eras Tour. So, having something to wear as you watch the games is a smart move. Instead of hanging out to make friendship bracelets, one fan tweeted, “Who wants to come over and rhinestone Travis Kelce jerseys and listen to Taylor Swift on vinyl?”
Some other fans are buying up Kelce’s jersey to pre-plan some couples costumes for Halloween, like TikToker Victoria Garrick Browne. Browne’s “sweet but psycho” costume idea popped into her head “after just *one* public Taylor and Travis sighting” — and honestly, it’s genius.
While some Swifties are also football fans, a few might not be familiar with the game. To help the newbies out, many NFL fans have taken to TikTok and other platforms to help educate Swifties on football terms like “down” and “offensive lineman.” They’ve even used some of Swift’s songs as references in their definitions. “Someone said ‘downs’ were 4 ‘this is me trying’ and they are so right,” one Swiftie wrote on Twitter.
Even Jason Kelce and Travis tried helping out Swifties who were listening to their podcast New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, while they discussed Swift’s appearance at the game. One fan wrote on X, “The part of the podcast where they try their best to explain football terms to Swifties is so wholesome.”
Everyone working together to get on the same page just proves that this new relationship is one to root for. It’s not enough to just know that Travis is a tight end for the Chiefs. Fans wants to know exactly what tight ends do in the game. It’s precious.
This isn’t the first time Swift has made her fans tune into some football games. Back in 2022, she teased her Midnights album during Thursday Night Football. Going all the way back to her reputation era, Swift even had fans watching college football when she debuted her single “...Ready For It?” One Swiftie joked, “Taylor has actually made me watch football one too many times in her career.”
However, nothing truly compares to Swift having fans watch an entire game just to get glimpses of her in the crowd. It gives a whole new meaning to her “You Belong With Me” lyrics, “and I'm on the bleachers.” According to Variety, having Swift there gave the Bears and Chiefs game 24.32 million viewers, and a huge boost in female viewership for the NFL.
Some Swifties are even buying tickets to other Chiefs games in the hopes that their fave singer makes another appearance. “May have just bought tickets to the Jets vs. Chiefs game on Sunday just for fun,” wrote one fan. Right now, some tickets are cheaper than trying to get resale tickets to The Eras Tour, so you might as well.
Fans are having so much fun with Swift and Kelce’s relationship being the talk of the town that they’re willing to fight their partners over it. Some Swifties in relationships with football fans are pranking them by saying her appearance at the game helped to popularize Kelce and “put him on the map.”
The NFL player is a two-time Super Bowl champ and celeb in his own right, so it’s obviously a joke to say that Swift made him famous, and the fun comes from seeing the outrage on their partner’s faces. Even though Kelce is famous, he’s definitely seeing a boost now that he’s hanging with the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) star, so there is some truth to these jabs. In fact, one fan wrote on X, “We tried to do the Travis Kelce prank on my dad except he said he didn’t know who Travis Kelce was until Taylor Swift lmao.”
It didn’t take long for Swift and Kelce memes to take over TikTok and Twitter. Many fans have been celebrating an all-new Independence Day referencing Swift’s move from dating London boys like Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy to an all-American athlete like Kelce.
All eyes were on Swift the entire game, and one fan account even noticed what she seemed to be snacking on in the suite. The Eras Tour-themed account noted that she was “eating a piece of chicken with ketchup and seemingly ranch.” The interesting word choice of “seemingly ranch” was prime for memes, and taken to the extreme by companies like ShopDisney and Arby’s all tweeting about the condiment.
Now, Heinz is releasing a limited-edition Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch bottle for 100 Swifties — for those who aren’t in the know, the number is a reference to Kelce’s jersey number, 87, plus Swift’s favorite number, 13.
Fans of Swift have become so great at solving puzzles that they can even find easter eggs that the singer didn’t mean to leave behind. For example, fans have found clues that the two have always been MFEO even before they linked up. Case in point: there are lyrics from Swift’s first album that reference the number 87, which is Kelce’s jersey number.
While it could just be a coincidence, Swifties have researched to college paper levels to find all the reasons why a relationship was always written in the stars for these two. Kelce would even be Swift’s 13th boyfriend if their union is true, so it’s almost like she has to marry him. TikToker @cheetahcowboyhatgirl said she was in “actual tears” finding out this invisible string between the two.
