The moment Taylor Swift cherishes the most from her “rookie” NFL season was something she never originally anticipated.
When reflecting on her first season as a member of Chiefs Kingdom during her highly hyped appearance on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast Wednesday, the 14-time Grammy winner revealed she was taken aback by the media blitz that followed Kansas City’s AFC Championship win in 2024 and was startled over the suggestion that she would join his family on the field for the jubilant celebrations.
“The first time I stepped on the field, which would have been when you won the AFC Championship, the first season that I was with you, and it was in Baltimore, and we’re in the suite and you just won the AFC Championship, we’re freaking out and everybody’s screaming, and [Travis’] mom goes, ‘Alright, let’s go down to the field.’ I was like, ‘What, we’re doing, what do you mean? We’re going where?’ And she’s like, ‘We’re going down to the field,’ and I was like, ‘Did he say that that’s OK?’ Cause we hadn’t talked about this,” Swift, 35, recalled of the Chiefs’ 17-10 victory over the Ravens at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium in January 2024.
That’s when Kelce matriarch Donna assured the pop megastar that her son — who had just punched his ticket to his fourth Super Bowl — would want her there for the Chiefs’ latest victory lap.
“She was like, ‘Trust me, he wants you there,’ and I was like, ‘OK, she would know,’ and so, I’m walking out onto this field and it’s like — there’s so many lights, and I’ve never seen this many cameras, I’ve never seen this much media in my life, and I’ve seen a lot of media. And then the media sees me, and then they just start running at me, and I’m looking at you, and then you’re screaming into the mic, cause when there’s a mic and there’s Travis, he physically needs to scream into it. So basically, I’m experiencing this whole heightened scenario that I had no idea five minutes before I was going to be experiencing, and it’s one of my most cherished memories,” Swift recalled.
Swift, who started dating Kelce in the summer of 2023 and made her first Chiefs appearance that September, embraced the tight end on the field in the surreal scene.
“I was so proud that you came down there to join me for that moment,” Kelce told Swift, who replied, “It was so magical, it was so fun, it’s crazy to get to see someone you love work that hard and have that kind of euphoric payoff where, you did it, underlined a hundred times …. I had such a great rookie year.”
Two weeks later, Swift joined Kelce on the field again at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where Kansas City defeated San Francisco in overtime, 25-22, to win Super Bowl 2024.
Beyond Swift’s foray into football, the singer spoke at length Wednesday about her relationship with Kelce and her upcoming album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which drops Oct. 3.
The Chiefs open the 2025 season on Sept. 5 against the Chargers in São Paulo, Brazil.