It was back in 2022 that Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce and his brother, fellow NFL star Jason Kelce, launched their “New Heights” podcast.
As hardcore fans of Taylor Swift may recall, a year later — July 26, 2023 to be precise — the brothers dropped a podcast that, in retrospect, marked the beginning of a journey that culminated in the football hero and the pop star exchanging vows in Madison Square Garden.
Taylor Scuttled Travis’ Attempted Meet-Cute
In that particular “New Heights” episode, Travis told Jason that he’d recently taken in the Kansas City performance of Swift’s Eras Tour.
He was hoping to use his celebrity status as an NFL star to meet her after the show — and was planning to present her with a custom-made friendship bracelet that contained some key information.
However, when he arrived at the venue he learned that Swift has a rule of not meeting with fans — even famous ones — before or after her shows, in order to keep her voice from getting strained.
“I was a little butt hurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her,” Travis remarked.
His brother, however, was in the dark about the Swiftie practice of exchanging friendship bracelets that had become customary during the Eras Tour, so he explained.
“If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets handed out,” Travis told Jason. “I received a bunch of them, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it.”
Jason then asked his brother whether that number was the one embossed on his Kasnsas City Chiefs jersey — No. 87 — or his phone number.
“You know which one,” the grinning athlete quipped.
A Sweet Gesture That Didn’t Go Unnoticed
As Swifties will recall, at that time Swift had recently split up with Matty Healy, frontman of The 1975, having previously ended her long-term relationship with actor Joe Alwyn.
Kelce’s heart-on-his-sleeve attempt to charm her with a friendship bracelet did not go unnoticed by the suddenly single singer.
During her subsequent appearance on the “New Heights” podcast, she recalled that she’d been touched by his attempted meet-cute.
“This is sort of what I’ve been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager,” Swift divulged.
“And I was sitting there at the Eras Tour listening to every single one of those songs, like, ‘I know what she wants me to do,” Travis joked.
“It was such a wild, romantic gesture,” Swift recalled. “This kind of felt more like I was in an ’80s John Hughes movie, and he was just, like, standing outside of my window with a boombox, just being like, ‘I want to date you.’”
Whatever Happened to the Bracelet?
When Swift appeared on the “New Heights” podcast, Jason Kelce asked the question that was on everyone’s minds: what happened to the bracelet that started it all?
“I’ve never seen the original,” Swift confirmed, recalling that Kelce threw a “man tantrum” when he wasn’t allowed to present it to her.
