Late July, rumors amid highly adorned singer Taylor Swift and almost equally highly adorned Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce being love interests for each other started to surface. Many started to jump on the idea of these two being a couple, months after Swift ended her six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, and Kelce breaking up with his longtime girlfriend, sports journalist Kayla Nicole, in 2022.

Since then, the couple has saturated the Internet and social media. Many have attempted to dig up bones about the potential romance sparking between the two. Before the weekend of October 14^th and 15^th, Kelce himself, along with close friends, have play down the relationship between the two. 

It started with Kelce attending the July 8^th show of the Eras Tour. He commented about reaching out to Swift because he wanted to give her a friendship bracelet with his number. This did not end up working, per Kelce, and he mentioned that he said, “I told her, ‘I’ve seen you rock the stage in Arrowhead, you might have to come see me rock the stage in Arrowhead.’” 

And on September 24^th, Swift made her appearance at the Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears, cheering the team on with Donna Kelce, the tight end’s mom, in Kelce’s suite. After the Chiefs wiped the Bears, 41-10, the two were seen departing the game together and later around Kansas City in Kelce’s convertible.

However, over the weekend of October 14^th and 15^th, the two made a surprise appearance on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Prior to the appearance, the two had dinner that evening before heading over to make surprise cameos on ‘SNL,’ and seemingly confirmed the relationship rumors as they held hands walking out of the restaurant.

After their surprise cameos on ‘SNL,’ the two showed up hand in hand to a dinner party. This also comes after Swift released her 2023 American concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. AMC reported that the film earned $100 million in global pre-sales a week before it was released. The film has now become the highest-grossing concert film of all time, surpassing Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, which premiered in 2011.

Not only has swift brought publicity to Travis Kelce, but to the NFL as well. It has shown how much power this highly adorned American singer holds. 

Since the two have been related in the media since July, Kelce’s social media footprint and following on Instagram. Before this past weekend, Kelce gained nearly 400,000 followers, more than he gained after the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory. Between Friday the 13^th and Saturday the 14^th, the tight end gained about 15,000, and almost doubled that with 27,000 followers on Sunday alone after their outing. Kelce now has over four million followers on Instagram.

Kelce’s podcast, New Heights, with his brother Jason Kelce, who plays for Swift’s hometown team, Philadelphia Eagles, soared into the number-one spot on the Apple charts. Travis Kelce’s jersey, number 87, surged almost 400%, which put him into the top five NFL jersey sellers.

In terms of broadcasting, the first game that Swift went to of the Chicago Bears versus the Kansas City Chiefs, the Fox broadcast engrossed almost 25 million viewers. It was the most-watched game that week, especially with a spike in the female demographic. Streaming service Roku reported that there was an astounding 63% increase in female viewers from the ages 18 to 49. 

StubHub, a ticket reselling platform, recorded that there was a threefold increase in searches for Chiefs tickets, and the Google searches for Chiefs also tripled. Following the broadcast of the Chicago Bears and Kansas City Chiefs, the next day the Chiefs sold more tickets than any other game since the beginning of the season.These are just beginning numbers for the duo sparks flying romance. Many have criticized the relationship because of the match up and the amount of publicity that Kelce, Swift, the Chiefs and the NFL are getting. Call it what you want, but this duo is breaking down barriers and setting records.