The Kansas City Chiefs are the focus of the NFL world for a variety of reasons, largely their sustained success over the last half-decade and change. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is another contributor, but most would agree that tight end Travis Kelce has him beat as the league's most popular player.
Kelce, who's a future Hall of Fame talent in his own right, has seen his star shine brighter than anyone's thanks to his ongoing relationship with pop icon Taylor Swift. It's a lot to manage for any professional athlete, let alone someone who's trying to chase championships on a yearly basis. Luckily for Kelce, he's found ways to handle it to perfection and his head coach is a fan of everything he and Swift have going on.
In a recent appearance on the Scoop City podcast with Dianna Russini and Chase Daniel, Andy Reid explained why the relationship is so great for both parties.
"I think it's great for him," Reid said. "Matter of fact, I think he probably loves it to a point. I think there's a great escape for him. I said that about Taylor, too. She comes to the game, she can kind of escape having to be the show, and Travis can do that. When he goes to her concerts, she's the star and he can be hanging out there and be the support, the water boy. He can do that."
There's been no better sequence to help drive home Reid's point than the last calendar year. At multiple points during the 2023-24 season, Swift attended Chiefs games (at home or on the road) and got to take a break from starring on stage. Kelce, in turn, attended some of Swift's concerts around the world (and even got some lyrics changed just for him). That's continued into the offseason, when Kelce naturally has more time to balance working out and enjoying life away from football.
For Swift, the national and worldwide limelight is something she's been used to for well over a decade. Kelce has gradually been exposed more and more to it, and Reid thinks he's taken every bit of the attention in stride.
"It depends on the people involved, I think," Reid said. "She gets all that, and he's kind of grown into it. That podcast of theirs (New Heights) is ridiculous, so he's gotten a lot of notoriety for that. And he's an outgoing guy – I mean [when] he comes into a room, he's going to light the room up. Everybody's his best friend. Until you prove him wrong, everybody's a friend. He can handle it. It's not something he hasn't been given that he can't handle."
With the month of July more than halfway over, Kelce will report to Chiefs training camp at Missouri Western State University and embark on another journey. It's a grueling stretch of extensive practices, a critical conditioning test and everything in between. That will also serve as time away for the team, as St. Joseph is about an hour's hike from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Reid prefers it that way because it gives the players time to focus ahead of the season.
Kelce is no different. Instead of worrying about the magnitude of that relationship, Reid embraces it and trusts that his 34-year-old tight end will be ready to roll for camp.
"I'm OK with it," Reid said. "I grew up in Hollywood, so I mean, I'm OK with it. The guys, as long as they're ready to go. Training camp is kind of that proving ground. If you're not ready to go, it's going to be obvious quickly. Just whether it's the conditioning test or the long drive drills we do, you're going to find out who's in and who's not in and who's put the time in. Hard work has a tendency... you're not worried about being Super Bowl champs, you're worried about getting through that moment and it builds something in you. That's the nitty gritty, as you'd say, of it all. It brings you right back, it grounds you, it brings you right back to Earth there."
