No, Travis Kelce’s and Taylor Swift’s relationship is not a publicity stunt.
That’s the message that the Kansas City Chiefs tight end’s business managers, André and Aaron Eanes, wanted to hit home in a New York Times feature piece by Zach Schonbrun.
The NFL’s most ubiquitous couple of 2023 skyrocketed to fame back in September when the eight-time Pro Bowler publicly stepped out with the Eras Tour superstar at a Chiefs home game against the Chicago Bears.
Since then, a conspiracy theory has been making the rounds on the internet: Could their relationship be fake? Were Kelce and Swift just doing it for the publicity?
Aaron Eanes debunked that theory and said Kelce’s red carpet entrance into mainstream stardom was part of the plan all along.
Eanes told the Times, “People say to me, ‘Man, it’s been a crazy year.’ When I say, ‘Actually, it’s not that crazy,’ people look at me funny. It’s because it’s easy when you have a plan. We’re executing that plan.”
The plan to turn Travis Kelce into a bona fide A-list celebrity got a glittery wrinkle when Kelce started dating one of the world’s most famous pop stars, but as Eanes stressed, there was a plan nonetheless.
Long before Kelce was making friendship bracelets for Swift, the two-time Super Bowl champ broke into reality television with a namesake dating show, Catching Kelce, starred on Saturday Night Live, and secured endorsement deals with Bud Light, State Farm and Experian, among other companies.
Sometime in the summer of 2023, Swift came along, and the rest is history in the making.
To Kelce’s managers, they’re the real masterminds behind the Chiefs star’s popularity surge in 2023.
“We positioned Travis to be world famous,” André Eanes said. “We didn’t know how it would happen, or when it would happen, or what would help push that further along. But it’s always been the thought in the back of our minds.”
