As I’m sure you know, Taylor Swift’s loyal fans have a lot of opinions when it comes to her dating life.
Over the years, Taylor has been linked with a number of pretty high profile people. Although, not all of them have earned the Swifites’ coveted seal of approval.
John Mayer, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Calvin Harris spring to mind as some of the singer’s least favorable exes — not to mention Matty Healy, whose brief relationship with Taylor earlier this year was met with such intense disapproval from fans that it sparked a wave of online backlash.
So, after the end of her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn, and the welcome demise of her short-lived fling with Matty, Swifties are holding out hope that Taylor’s next love interest might be the perfect fit, at long last.
And now, there’s a possibility that they might be in luck — kind of.
In case you’ve not seen it, rumors surfaced online yesterday that Taylor has been “quietly hanging out” with NFL player, Travis Kelce.
For those of you who are less familiar with the world of football, Travis is the tight end for the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, and is ranked among the NFL’s best — and most liked — players.
An anonymous source claimed that he and Taylor spent time together in NYC “a few weeks ago,” which comes days after DeuxMoi shared a blind item alleging a similar version of events.
OK, before we go any further, it’s important to note that there’s been absolutely no official confirmation that the two are actually involved. However, that didn't stop fans from launching into rampant discussion, not least because the pairing isn't completely random.
A few weeks ago, Travis garnered a lot of attention online after admitting that he tried — and failed — to shoot his shot with Taylor while he was attending her Eras tour in Kansas City this summer.
“If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts there are friendship bracelets and I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it,” he said during a July episode of his podcast, New Heights, which he hosts alongside his brother, fellow NFL player Jason Kelce.
“She doesn’t meet anybody — or at least she didn’t want to meet me, so I took it personal,” he joked, later adding that the show was “unbelievable” in spite of the fact that he wasn’t able to meet Taylor.
So, having already proven himself to be an ally to her fanbase, the news of Travis and Taylor’s rumored hangout was met with a lot of positive feedback online yesterday.
For starters, Swifties were pleased to see that Taylor could be veering away from her usual taste in partners — which, for the past decade, has been limited to arty British men who have careers in showbusiness.
“american, muscular, famous, talented ? this goes against her type omg,” one person wrote in response to the news on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“it’s about time she gets into her athlete era!” added another.
it’s about time she gets into her athlete era! she deserves a real man
In fact, fans realized that if Taylor and Travis did date, he’d be her first non-British boyfriend since 2012.
Away from his nationality, Travis has been in the public eye for a long time, and so far it seems that he’s pretty unproblematic — which can’t be said for all Taylor’s past love interests.
“he's handsome, unproblematic, has his on own money and a stable job so we know for a fact she isn't talking to him,” someone else joked, making reference to Taylor’s dating history.
Obviously, it goes without saying that Taylor is very accomplished in her own right, and so the Swifties seem to love that Travis is also already super successful in his field of work — presumably because it lessens the possibility that he would attempt to exploit her fame for his own gain or feel intimidated by it.
“6’5, not british, two superbowl wins, famous enough to host snl,” someone wrote, praising the athlete’s achievements.
On top of all this, Travis, like Taylor, was born in the year 1989 — which comes as just another green flag for the diehards, especially as the timing would be perfect since Taylor is about to re-release her album of the same name next month.
But as the fan reaction exploded online, an insider appeared to shut down everyone's excited chatter by telling Entertainment Tonight that the pair are “not officially dating.”
However, there was no word on whether the hangout rumor was true, so there may still be hope that this seemingly perfect coupling could eventually happen.
BuzzFeed has reached out to Taylor and Travis's representatives for comment.
