Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had a few opportunities to meet secretly before going public with their relationship.
Kansas City Chiefs defensive coach Dave Merritt made the revelation about the early days of Swift and Kelce's romance during a recent episode of The Sports Store with Reese and K-Mac podcast. In September, the now-couple first made headlines when Swift cheered on the football tight end at Arrowhead Stadium, sparking speculation that they were dating. In December, the “Anti-Hero” singer confirmed that she and Kelce were officially together.
In The Sports Store with Reese and K-Mac In the episode, Merritt said that while Swift first publicly attended Kelce's game in September, she had actually been there before that.
“When she started getting closer, it was in private,” he explained. “She would enter stadiums without people really knowing, until the camera highlighted it.”
Merrit went on to add that when she met Swift, she “really contributed to what was [the team]” was trying to do. She also expressed that she was welcomed into the Chiefs family with open arms, despite all the criticism she faced amid her relationship with Kelce.
“There were so many people who hated the fact that she was on TV that, you know what? You are part of our family because you are with Travis,” she explained. “So, you're our little sister.”
Merrit went on to emphasize that Swift affected the team in a “positive way,” noting that “everyone was excited that Travis was happy.” She then expressed how the “All Too Well” singer shaped her boyfriend.
“So when my player, a brother, is happy by my side, that helps me and encourages me, so Travis comes in as a different man. “So she helped us.”
Merritt later joked about Swift's success as a member of the Chiefs kingdom, after she was in the stands in Las Vegas on February 11 when the team won the Super Bowl against the San Fracisco 49ers.
“She won a Super Bowl her first year in the NFL,” the coach joked about Swift.
While Swift and Kelce went public with their relationship in September, the Grammy Award-winning singer also said they had some time to get to know each other beforehand. During an interview with Time in December, when she was named the publication's Person of the Year, she first confirmed that she hooked up with Kelce in July, after he confessed on her podcast that he tried and failed to give her a friendship bracelet with her phone number on it during one of his Eras Tour shows.
“This all started when Travis very adorably blew me up on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” he explained. “We started dating right after that. “So we spent a significant amount of time that no one knew about, which I'm grateful because we got to know each other.”
During the interview, Swift also confirmed for the first time that when she attended Kelce's famous game at Arrowhead Stadium in September, she was already dating him.
“When I went to the first game, we were a couple. I think some people think they saw our first date in that game. “We would never be psychotic enough to throw a first date,” he said.
The “Cruel Summer” singer later confessed that while she knew her love life had been highly publicized, with every Chiefs game she attended, she still focused on being there for her boyfriend. She also said that she was not trying to hide her relationship from the public.
“When you say a relationship is public, that means I'm going to see him do what he loves, we introduce ourselves to each other, there are other people there and we don't care,” she said. “The opposite of that is that you have to go to extreme lengths to make sure no one knows you're dating someone. And we are just proud of each other.”
Since she started dating Kelce in September, Swift attended 13 of his games during the 2023-2024 NFL season. Earlier this month, she even attended the Super Bowl with some of her famous friends, including Blake Lively, Ice Spice and Lana Del Rey. Her appearance at the game in Las Vegas came one night after she had performed a leg of her Eras Tour shows in Tokyo, Japan.
Kelce also supported his girlfriend's career, as he attended one of her concerts in Argentina in September. During the event, she even changed the lyrics of her song, “Karma,” to reflect their relationship, as she sang, “Karma is the guy from the Chiefs, coming straight home to me.”
Earlier this month, the NFL star traveled to Sydney, Australia, to attend his February 23 concert. Before the show, the couple was seen at Sydney Zoo holding hands while getting up close and personal with Australian wildlife during a private tour of the park, according to video obtained by Australia's Channel 9.
