Travis Kelce is giving credit where it’s due. After the Kansas City Chiefs tight end left a woman speechless while meeting fans recently, he joked that the source of his star power has less to do with him than it does who he’s dating: Taylor Swift.
In a video posted to TikTok Sunday (Aug. 4), Kelce strolls up to a group of fans and jokes, “What are you guys doing in my hallway?”
When the man filming the video says, “You just took my wife’s breath away, literally she just almost died,” the athlete simply shrugs. “The Taylor Swift effect,” he says as the fans laugh.
“Unbelievable day at @Chiefs friends and family day,” reads the video’s caption.
Kelce has long been open about how his superstar girlfriend’s fame has rubbed off on him, even though he is regarded as one of the NFL’s most gifted offensive players. Earlier this year, for instance, he recalled being chased by airborne paparazzi at the Sydney Zoo while visiting Swift on her Eras Tour stops in Australia.
“They helicoptered us … well, not us — Taylor,” he said on his podcast New Heights at the time. “This is all because Taylor is the biggest and the best thing possible.”
In an interview with Good Morning America in June, Kelce explained how he’s stayed grounded despite the so-called Taylor Swift effect. “It might not come off like that when I’m playing football, but off the field, I just want to be a genuine person,” he said. “When you have good family and friends around you, it makes that aspect in life that much easier.”
Kelce and Swift are currently both busy with work. The 14-time Grammy winner is in the middle of her Eras Tour’s European leg — her next concerts are scheduled for this weekend in Vienna — while the Ohio native is about two weeks into Chiefs training camp ahead of the 2024-25 NFL season. The couple was last seen together in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, where Kelce enjoyed one of Swift’s performances before personally escorting her out of the backstage area after the show was over.
Watch Kelce joke with fans about the “Taylor Swift effect” below.
