Travis Kelce Calls Taylor Swift an ‘Athlete,’ Praising the ‘Mind-Blowing’ Amount of Work She Puts Into Shows

Travis Kelce knows all about sacrificing, training and running your body ragged in order to play like a champ on game day. The 12-year veteran tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs with three Super Bowl rings on his resumé talked to GQ for a new cover story about the laser-focused offseason training regimen aimed at getting the team back to the big game after a tough blow-out loss earlier this year to rivals the Philadelphia Eagles.

Not for nothing, he also said that as hard as he hits the gym, his girlfriend of two years, Taylor Swift, is just a much of a gym rat when it comes to prep for her shows.

“I hadn’t experienced somebody in the same shoes as me, having a partner who understands the scrutiny, understands the ups and downs of being in front of millions,” Kelce said in the story that delves into the couple’s closely held relationship, which has played out on phone screens on any given Sunday over the past two years as Swift has cheered Kelce on and he returned the favor by attending her epic, three-plus hour Eras Tour gigs around the world.

“That was very relatable, seeing how exhausted she would get after shows,” he said. “She may not think of herself as an athlete. She will never tell anyone that she is an athlete. But I’ve seen what she goes through. I’ve seen the amount of work that she puts on her body, and it’s mind-blowing.”

Swift famously trained for the show by performing the entire career-spanning set while running on a treadmill, something Kelce said was super intense, even for a dedicated athlete like him. He described the stage for the show as “football-field-sized computer,” one that got “scorching hot” on stops in places like Singapore. “All of a sudden you’re feeling the fumes from the computer and you’re feeling the fumes from the sun and you’re doing a show for three hours with a lot of energy, bringing it every single song,” he said of Swift’s never-say-quit perseverance. “That is arguably more exhausting than how much I put in on a Sunday, and she’s doing it three, four, five days in a row.”

And while he is a global superstar in his own right now — guest hosting SNL in 2023, appearing in the new Happy Gilmore 2 sequel, hosting his New Heights podcast with brother Jason Kelce and the Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? series — when it comes to his life in SwiftLand, he’s happy to just be a “plus one.”

Kelce said he is excited to go to Swift’s shows and be a fan, because he is a fan. “I’m a fan of music. I’m a fan of art. And it’s so cool that I get to experience her being that plus one for me on the football field…. I feel that same enjoyment every time she comes to my shows,” he said of Swift’s by-now routine appearances in the family sky box cheering him on during the season. And while he’s been introduced to arguably the biggest pop fandom in the world as half of one of the most-watched couples on the planet, Kelce isn’t afraid to take credit for making Swift a fan of his world in the process.

“I sort of made her a football fan,” Kelce told the magazine, which described him as speaking freely about his partner with the “confident adoration of a sturdy relationship,” while noting that his pride is not of the macho or overprotective chivalrous type, but more of the “immaculate,” selfless variety. “She is the most engulfed fan now. She knows what the injury reports look like. She understands what special situations are, third and short—all these things because she just naturally loves to hear about my job.”

He also can’t get enough of her shows, marveling at the impact Swift has on her followers and the warm pull of her celebrity, a rare gift that can make a 65,000-capacity football stadium feel like a living room. “People gravitate towards how she performs and how she makes it feel like the entire stadium is in this little room with her,” he said. “She is so good at mesmerizing everybody and making everybody feel like it’s an intimate situation. I think that alone — there is so much calm and coolness. She’s beautiful. She’s up there making everyone feel at ease.”

As he gears up for the upcoming 2025-2026 football season, Kelce will have plenty more chances to see Swift in the stands, and, maybe, on stage again. The singer surprise announced her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, on Tuesday morning (Aug. 12) and while no specifics on the LP have been announced yet, it’s possible Swift will reveal some details on Wednesday (Aug. 13) when she makes her first appearance on the New Heights pod.