Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Relationship

Submission 1,552

Part of a series on Taylor Swift. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Relationship refers to pop singer Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce dating in 2023 and 2024. Rumors of the pair potentially dating initially spread in September 2023 and were fueled further by Swift attending one of Kelce's Chiefs games later that month. The rumors led to intense analysis and discourse among Swift's fans, known as "Swifties," and jokes and memes from NFL fans. It was later confirmed that the two were dating, inspiring mass discourse and memes.

Background

On September 12th, 2023, the X^[1] account @PopBase posted side-by-side images of Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce, writing, "Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce have been ‘quietly hanging out,’ The Messenger reports," garnering over 100,000 likes in two days (shown below). They also provided a link to the Messenger^[2] article about the two hanging out in which an anonymous source is quoted as saying, "Taylor and Travis have been quietly hanging out. She saw him when she was in NYC a few weeks ago."

The report subsequently started the phrasal template meme format, Taylor Swift and NFL Player Travis Kelce Have Been 'Quietly Hanging Out', as users joked about unlikely potential romantic pairings with the headline's phrasing (examples seen below).

Developments

Rumors of the pair dating intensified after Travis' brother Jason Kelce, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, joked on September 20th, 2023, that the rumors are "100 percent true" on Sports Radio WIP (shown below). However, he repeatedly insisted he was joking and that he didn't know what was happening in Travis' love life.

On the September 21st episode of The Pat McAfee Show, Kelce made a public invitation to Swift to see the Chiefs play after he saw her Eras tour. He did not confirm if the two were a romantic item at the time.

On September 24th, Swift then attended a Kansas City Chiefs game and was filmed cheering on Travis next to Kelce's mother (tweet from the NFL shown below). The two were also seen leaving the stadium together.^[3] This moment proceeded to go viral online, as well as garnering significant media attention.^[7]

TRAVIS KELCE.📺: #CHIvsKC on FOX📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/UQdQ05gT8f pic.twitter.com/4g5GmAdot5

— NFL (@NFL) September 24, 2023

Online Presence

Rumors of the pair dating led to much discourse and many jokes online, particularly as people imagined the interactions between the Swift fandom and NFL fans. Numerous football fans joked that the zealotry of Swifties would lead to intense debate and resolutions of some of football's biggest controversies.

For example, on September 24th, 2023, Twitter user @FranziaMom^[4] joked that Swifties would cause the Kansas City Chiefs to change their Native American-themed name by the end of the day, gaining over 220 likes in two days (shown below, top). The same day, user @JeffKrisko^[5] joked Swifties would have an opinion on teams running the ball by the end of the day, gaining over 900 retweets and 10,000 likes in two days (shown below, bottom).

On September 25th, Twitter user @northastrology^[6] posted an intensely detailed reading of their pair's compatibility astrology (shown below). The post gained over 2,600 retweets and 1,000 likes in one day, notably garnering over 2,400 quote-tweets as people joked about the intensity of Swift fans.

Taylor Swift and NFL Player Travis Kelce Have Been "Quietly Hanging Out"

Taylor Swift and NFL Player Travis Kelce Have Been Quietly Hanging Out refers to a series of memes about Taylor Swift's potential relationship with Travis Kelce claiming Taylor Swift is "quietly hanging out" with another celebrity or character, using the phrasal template, "Taylor Swift and X have been ‘quietly hanging out,’ The Messenger reports." The meme became popularized on X (formerly Twitter) in mid-September 2023 after Pop Base made a post claiming Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce have been quietly hanging out.