Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce – A Love Story timeline
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Now that the matchup for Super Bowl LVIII is set, one of the many storylines leading up to the game is whether or not Taylor Swift will attend.
Swift has been at the majority of the Kansas City Chiefs games this season in support of All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce after the pair began dating sometime last year. While just about everyone would want to see their significant other play on one of the biggest stages in sports, Swift’s Eras Tour resumes next week in Japan for four shows, beginning on Feb. 7 and running until Feb. 10.
The time difference from Japan to Las Vegas will make it possible for her to attend the big game on Feb. 11, but it’s a tall order with her due back in Melbourne, Australia to resume her tour on Feb. 16.
Watch the Super Bowl LIVE on TSN, CTV, TSN.ca and the TSN App on Sunday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.
As the countdown to Super Bowl LVIII kicks into full gear, here is a timeline of how Swift and Kelce became the most talked-about couple in the world.
I thought it was “metal as hell”
Let’s let Taylor tell it in her own words.
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” she said in a Dec. 6 profile after being named Time’s Person of the Year.
“We started hanging out right after that.”
Let’s back up. What she is referring to is on July 26, Kelce revealed on New Heights – a podcast he co-hosts with his brother Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles – that he’d tried to give Swift his phone number on a friendship bracelet at Kansas City show on July 8, where Kelce attended in a private box. But the bracelet never made its way to Swift.
“If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets, and I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it,” Travis said on the podcast.
“I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings.”
It’s barely an exaggeration. Swift’s concerts on her Eras Tour often run well over three hours and feature dozens of songs from her 10 studio albums.
Kelce’s public callout sparked rumours. Could possibly the biggest celebrity in the world wind up with one of the key figures on the most dominant NFL team of the past decade? It appeared possible, even likely as rumours picked up steam into the month of September.
“I’ve seen these rumours. I cannot comment,” said Jason on Sept. 14 during Thursday Night Football.
“I don’t really know what’s going on there, but I know Travis is having fun and we’ll see what happens with whoever he ends up with.”
It wasn’t a yes. But it wasn’t a no, either.
‘‘And then we just slid off in the getaway car…”
On Sept. 21, Kelce went on The Pat McAfee Show and continued to publicly shoot his shot.
“I told her that I’ve seen her rock a stage at Arrowhead and she might have to come see me rock the stage at Arrowhead,” Kelce said.
Three days later, the Chiefs were set to host the Chicago Bears. The Bears dropped both their games to open the season and were heavy underdogs against a Chiefs team that won its first outing of the season the week before.
Swift’s Eras Tour had been on hiatus for nearly a month and wasn’t scheduled to resume for weeks. Did that mean she would actually show?
Rumblings on social media that afternoon certainly made it seem so, and sure enough, there was Swift alongside Travis’ mom, Donna, in a box at kickoff. Kelce put on a show in a decisive win, catching seven passes for 69 yards and a touchdown.
He hauled in a TD in the third quarter with the Chiefs up 34-0, prompting a huge celebration from the 12-time Grammy winner in the box.
“Let’s f--king go!” she appeared to scream as Arrowhead erupted.
Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes admitted after the game he felt some pressure to get Kelce the ball, acknowledging he wanted Kelce “to get in the end zone as much as all the Swiftees wanted him to.”
The pair all but confirmed their relationship after the game when they left Arrowhead together and were seen riding off into the sunset – literally – in Kelce’s 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle convertible.
“Shout out to Taylor for pulling up, that was pretty ballsy,” he said on his podcast the next week.
“I just thought it was awesome how everybody in the suite had nothing but great things to say about her. You know, the friends and family. She looked amazing. Everybody was talking about her in a great light and on top of that, the day went perfect for Chiefs fans, of course.”
And then Kelce dropped a nod to track No. 9 on Reputation.
“And then we just slid off in the getaway car at the end,” he said, referencing Swift’s song “Getaway Car” on her 2017 album.
“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,” Swift later told Time.
“… on top of the world”
With the “hard launch” out of the way, the relationship showed signs of promise over the next little while.
The following week, Swift was spotted out in New York with Brittany Mahomes, the wife of the Chiefs star quarterback. Kansas City played a road game against the Jets on Oct. 1 and there again was Swift in a box at MetLife Stadium alongside Sophie Turner, Sabrina Carpenter, Ryan Reynolds, and Donna Kelce.
“As all the attention comes… it feels like I was on top of the world after the Super Bowl and right now I’m even more on top of the world,” Kelce said on Oct. 6.
Swift was back at the Chiefs game at Arrowhead on Oct. 12 just hours after her Eras Tour film premiered in Los Angeles. On Oct. 14, Travis and Taylor made surprise appearances during Saturday Night Live with Swift introducing rapper Ice Spice as the show’s musical guest. They were also spotted the day after eating dinner in New York and Swift was right next to Brittany Mahomes in Chiefs red for their next game on Oct. 22, where the two even seemed to have their own celebratory handshake.
“Football is awesome, it turns out,” Swift said via Time. “I’ve been missing out my whole life.”
“Karma is the guy on the Chiefs”
The Chiefs went into their bye week at 7-2 after their win over the Miami Dolphins on Nov. 5. That meant Kelce and Co. weren’t due back in action until Nov. 20, giving him the chance to go see Swift perform since she had resumed the South American leg of her tour.
On Nov. 11 in Argentina with Kelce in attendance, Swift not so subtly Kelce-fied her upbeat hit “Karma” from her 2022 album Midnights, singing “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me,” replacing “screen” from the original line to “Chiefs.”
The stadium in Buenos Aires reacted as expected and so did Travis, who seemed genuinely surprised but appreciative of the moment while taking in the performance alongside Taylor’s father, Scott Swift.
After finishing her last song, Taylor ran right to Travis and the two embraced in full view of fans at the show. The moment was adorable and seemed to indicate the duo was enjoying the spotlight on their relationship.
‘Tayvis’ stayed in the headlines as the weeks went on. Kelce said in a Wall Street Journal cover story published on Nov. 20 that he had “somebody playing Cupid” in Taylor’s camp. Swift spoke about their relationship in a (much bigger) cover story of her own on Dec. 6 with Time, candidly discussing the romance in a way she hadn’t previously in public.
“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 said in the feature.
“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.”
“This is part of the charm”
The two spent Christmas and New Year’s together and Swift continued to attend Chiefs games as the playoffs began. Despite some of the coldest weather ever recorded for a football game, Taylor was back at Arrowhead for Kansas City’s showdown with the Miami Dolphins in the wild-card round on Jan. 13, this time rocking a custom puffer jacket with Kelce’s No. 87 designed by Kristin Juszczyk, the wife of San Francisco 49er Kyle Juszczyk.
Clearly out of their element, the warm-weather Dolphins were steamrolled by the Chiefs and Taylor seemed to enjoy every minute of it, joining the rest of Arrowhead in a celebratory “swag surf” in the dying minutes of a 26-7 win.
Swift saw Kelce score two touchdowns the week after in a divisional round win over the Buffalo Bills on Jan. 21. For once, though, she wasn’t the most discussed Chiefs fan that afternoon.
Jason Kelce, whose Eagles were eliminated the week before, showed up in Buffalo to support his brother and stole the show. He jumped out of the box he was in with Swift and the K.C. contingent and started chugging beer with fans in the stands. Shirtless, of course.
“[My wife Kylie] was already telling me to be on my best behaviour because we were meeting Taylor, so she’s like ‘Do not. Be on your best behaviour.’ I was like, ‘Kylie, the first day I met you I was blackout drunk and fell asleep at the bar,’” Jason said.
“This is part of the charm. This is part of the Jason Kelce charm. I want to make my best first impression.”
As expected, Swift was back in her usual spot up top this past weekend in Baltimore when Kelce caught 11 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown in an AFC Championship Game win over the Ravens to send the Chiefs to their fourth Super Bowl in five years.
Swift and Kelce were even more affectionate than they were in Argentina on the field after the game as the Chiefs celebrated their chance to become the only repeat Super Bowl winners in 19 years.
It’s been pointed out that this year’s Super Bowl is the NFL’s 58th, and what does five plus eight equal? That would be 13, Swift’s well-documented favourite number. And, of course, the game is being played on Feb. 11, or put another way, 2/11. Another 13.
Whether or not she’s able to attend the big game is still up in the air, but football fans and Swiftees alike will be paying close attention. That, we know All Too Well.