Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has opened up about how he wants to find love amid rumours that he and Taylor Swift are romantically linked.
On Tuesday 19 September, Kelce spoke with host Kristin Cavallari on the Let’s Be Honest podcast. He took the opportunity to explain that love isn’t “immediate” for him.
“To really dive into a relationship with somebody … it’s going to take some time,” the football player shared. Kelce added that “stuff he’s been through in his past” tends to make him hesitant to start a relationship.
“You’ve really got to know somebody to take that step and really be committed and be in full throttle,” he said. “I can’t just meet somebody and automatically think that forever is just a day away. It’s too much. I’m setting myself up for failure.”
For him, love at first sight isn’t super common as he said he needs “quite a bit of time” just to get to know a potential partner before he can be able to feel “that affection and love for them”.
Although this doesn’t mean Kelce is against what he calls an “initial spark”. “As you get to know somebody, or you get to see their tendencies or what they do on a daily basis, I think all of that [love] can grow 100 per cent,” he added.
Recently, there have been rumours that the “somebody” in question that Kelce wants to get to know is Taylor Swift. Amid the couple’s rumoured romance, NFL Network’s Rich Eisen made jokes about the pair during a segment leading up to Kansas City Chiefs’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
During the pre-game show, Eisen made several puns with Swift song titles while discussing how Kelce was returning to the field after an injury in week one of the football season. “You saw it on Thursday night, when Travis Kelce wasn’t in there, it left a ‘blank space,’ but I think he returns today and proves to be the ‘anti-hero.’ Never goes ‘out of style,’ he said, referring to three of Swift’s hit songs: “Blank Space,” “Style,” and “Anti-Hero.”
The segment was later posted on Eisen’s Instagram where Kelce took to the comments section and replied: “Well played Rich…well played.”
Eisen’s puns continued throughout the segment with other similar puns using Swift’s song titles, like how he was able to “shake off” his injury, referring to the song “Shake it Off.”
Along with Eisen, NFL announcer Ian Eagle also made a joke about Swift during the game, which the Jaguars lost 17-9. “Kelce finds a blank space for the score,” he said, moments after the Kansas City Chiefs tight end caught a pass in the end zone.
Only days before, Kelce’s brother, Jason, spoke on Prime’s Thursday Night Football where he was also brought into the rumours and explicitly asked about his brother dating the singer. “I’ve seen these rumours. I cannot comment,” he told co-host Tony Gonzalez.
The Philadelphia Eagles football player noted that ever since his brother’s short-lived reality dating series Catching Kelce, which premiered on E! in 2016, “everyone’s been infatuated with Travis’ love life”.
“I don’t really know what’s going on there,” Jason continued. “I know Travis is having fun, we’ll see what happens with whoever he ends up with."
