Now there's no way Travis Kelce can shake off those rumours of a romance with Taylor Swift.
Not after the pop super-duper-star was spotted in a luxury suite — next to Kelce's mother, Donna, no less — at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium during Sunday's game between the tight end's Chiefs and the visiting Chicago Bears.
Clad in Chiefs gear, Swift left no doubt about which team she was enthusiastically supporting and also seemingly put to rest any doubts that she and Kelce have at least some level of personal connection. She showed plenty of excitement when Kelce scored a third-quarter touchdown in what turned into a 41-10 rout of the hapless Bears.
Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes said afterward that, knowing Swift was in the building, he "felt a little bit of pressure" to make sure Kelce caught a touchdown pass.
"I knew I had to get it to Trav," he said. "I think he wanted to get into the end zone just as much as all the Swifties wanted him to."
After the game, Chiefs Coach Andy Reid joked that he "set them up."
"I threw the ball in her court," Kelce had said with a smile on the "Pat McAfee Show" on Thursday. "I told her, 'I've seen you rock the stage at Arrowhead. You might have to come see me rock the stage at Arrowhead and see which one's a little more lit.' So we'll see what happens in the near future."
During that interview, Kelce referred to the rumour mill in saying that "no one actually knows what's going on," and he lightheartedly chided his brother, Philadelphia Eagles centre Jason Kelce, for having fanned the flames of speculation.
Asked Wednesday in a regular appearance on Philadelphia station WIP about his younger sibling's possible romantic entanglement, Jason Kelce replied: "It's hard to answer because I don't really know a lot about Travis's love life. I try to keep his business kind of his business and stay out of that world.
"But having said that," he continued, "I think they're doing great and I think it's all 100 per cent true, and I hope that this thing goes a mile."
Kelce quickly added, "No, I'm joking, I don't know really what's happening." However, clips of him saying the rumours were "100 per cent true" wasted no time going viral.
Travis Kelce himself had initially revealed over the summer that he was interested in dating Swift. In a July episode of the podcast he hosts with his brother, Kelce said that when he attended a Swift concert at Arrowhead earlier that month, his intention was to hand her a friendship bracelet — with his phone number on it. However, he was disappointed to learn that "she doesn't talk before or after her shows, because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings."
"She doesn't meet anybody — or at least she didn't want to meet me — so I took it personal," he added at the time.
It would seem a friendship has blossomed between the 33-year-olds since then.
If worse comes to worst for Kelce, he might just wind up immortalised in one of her songs, not to mention on a bust in Canton.
