Travis Kelce has shared an amusing reaction to a NFL commentator’s references to Taylor Swift, amid rumours that the football star and singer are dating.
NFL Network’s Rich Eisen made the jokes about the rumoured couple on 17 September, during a segment leading up to Kansas City Chiefs’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. During the show, Eisen made references to some of Swift’s hit songs as he discussed how Kelce was returning to the field after an injury.
“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.”
When Eisen posted his segment on Instagram, Kelce simply laughed it off in the comments and wrote: “Well played Rich…. Well played.”
During other parts of the sports segment, Eisen proceeded to make comments about Kelce through similar puns, such as by praising the athlete for getting back in the game and being able to “shake off” his injury, referring to the tune “Shake it Off” by Swift.
As a video of the Chiefs entering their game played, Eisen also added: “There are the Chiefs, coming out. ‘August’ is over,” referring to Swift’s 2020 song, “August.”
In the caption of his Instagram post, Eisen included the title of Swift’s song from her Reputation album, writing: “Look what you made me do, @killatrav.”
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.
The pun came only a few days after Kelce’s brother, Jason, addressed rumours that his younger sibling is dating the “All Too Well” singer. “I’ve seen these rumours. I cannot comment,” he told Tony Gonzalez during Prime’s Thursday Night Football.
The 35-year-old father of three also noted that ever since his brother’s short-lived reality dating program, 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.”
Last week, reports first circulated that Swift and Kelce were “quietly hanging out”. A report from The Messenger on 12 September claimed that the singer “saw [Kelce] when she was in NYC a few weeks ago”.
However, after the report came out, a source told Entertainment Tonight that the pair are not officially dating. “Travis has been into Taylor for a while and definitely has a crush on her. He is a simple guy that is very funny, charismatic, chill, and loves playing football,” they said.
Back in July, Kelce had first confessed that he tried - and failed - to give Swift his number while attending one of her Eras Tour concerts. He revealed that he made the attempt through a trend that Swifties do before attending the show: Making friendship bracelets.
“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,” he explained to his brother on their podcast. “So I was a little butthurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her.”
“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,” Kelce continued. However, he wasn’t able to meet Swift after the show, and he jokingly told listeners that he “took it personal”.
