Once again, Travis Kelce knew just what to say to make Taylor Swift fans buy his jersey (though we’d all really like to get our hands on a Kristin Juszczyk original).
On January 26, Kelce briefly spoke about his relationship with the 34-year-old pop star during a Kansas City Chiefs press conference. Discussing his new level of fame, Kelce told reporters it would be “silly” to say he didn’t “notice it go up” given last year’s Super Bowl win and how he lives his “off-field life.” “I brought this upon myself and I do enjoy having fun with it all,” Kelce said. “My biggest thing is making sure my focus is right here in this building.”
Focus, of course, being the key word. Following some Chiefs losses earlier this season, Kelce’s dedication to football was called into question as some football fans and critics determined his relationship with Swift was a distraction. Now, the Kansas City Chiefs are just one game away from returning to the Super Bowl for the second time in a row.
“It’s just outside noise, dealing with others’ perspectives of things,” Kelce said of criticism. “You hear the media throughout the year if we’re not having success—you know, maybe throw it out there that maybe I wasn’t focused or that the team isn’t focussed on certain things. If you’re in this building, you know exactly what’s going on, so you got to compartmentalize what you’re hearing and make sure you’re staying on task and giving everybody in that building and on that team the right perception when you walk in that building.”
But that’s not the reason Swifties are gushing about Kelce on social media right now. Here’s what the footballer had to say when asked if he and Taylor Swift have discussed the negative attention: “The only thing we’ve talked about is: as long as we’re happy, we can’t listen to anything that’s outside noise—that’s all that matters.”
