Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s love story has fans just saying yes, with Swifties, dads, Brads, and Chads alike following every detail of the relationship between the Super Bowl–bound Kansas City Chiefs tight end and the pop star. What began as a supposedly failed attempt from Kelce to slip Swift his phone number after seeing her perform is now a full-blown relationship, complete with an on-field celebration, holidays spent together, hanging out with the parents—the whole nine yards. Forget “you’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess,” Swift isn’t just the queen of pop, she’s now undeniably the queen of the Chiefs’ kingdom. (With apologies to the Eagles sweatshirt hanging from the door of yesteryear, it’s pretty clear where her allegiances now lie.)
It’s fascinating to watch two people at the top of their respective games navigate their relationship and support one another in their careers as well, literally cheering each other on at concerts and games aplenty. So much has happened, it’s hard to believe that it’s been less than a year since that first “Wait, what’s she doing here?” when Swift popped up in the VIP suite at Arrowhead Stadium.
Ahead—a timeline of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship and the road to the Super Bowl.
July 8, 2023: Travis attends Taylor’s Eras Tour in Kansas City
Travis has earned his Swiftie stripes: Along with bestie-slash-Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany Mahomes, Travis headed to his home turf at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City for the second night of Swift’s planned two-show stint of the Eras Tour. On the July 26, 2023 episode of New Heights, the podcast he cohosts with older brother Jason Kelce, the center for the Philadelphia Eagles, Travis revealed that he’d tried and failed (or so we thought!) to shoot his shot with Swift.
“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. So I was a little butt-hurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her,” he said. “I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it.”
“She doesn’t meet anybody, or at least, she didn’t want to meet me, so I took it personal,” he said. “But it was an unbelievable show.”
Jason had a theory about the reason for the brush-off: “She probably just hasn’t gotten over the Super Bowl yet. She’s a big Eagles fan, so maybe she just made something up and just didn’t want to talk to you,” Jason Kelce said.
As we know now, that was far from the final bow for these two.
September 20, 2023: Jason Kelce accidentally confirms romance rumors about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
You can always count on a sibling to razz you into oblivion, but when you’re the Kelce brothers, it might just mean the accidental first confirmation of your rumored relationship.
As we now know, Taylor and Travis had been hanging out on the low-low since after that fateful July concert, as Taylor revealed in her TIME Person of the Year interview, saying, “This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” she says. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other.”
Back in September, however, there were only vague rumors from unnamed sources that the two had been “quietly hanging out.” Less quiet: Jason’s interview with a sports talk radio show where he’s put on the spot about Travis’s possible romance, tries to say nothing—and says something.
“It’s hard to answer because I don’t know what’s happening in Travis’s love life, and I try to keep his business his business and stay out of that world,” he said. “But having said that, man, I think they’re doing great, and I think it’s all 100% true, and I hope that this thing goes the mile.”