Patrick Mahomes
Joshua Kissi for TIME
Patrick Mahomes Praises Taylor Swift, Says She Studies Football As If She’s ‘Trying to Become a Coach’
Written by djfrosty on April 16, 2024
If Coach Andy Reid ever steps away from the Kansas City Chiefs, maybe Taylor Swift could be next in line. The pop star is already close with many of the team’s players thanks to her romance with tight end Travis Kelce, and in a new interview, quarterback Patrick Mahomes revealed that she’s been studying up on the sport.
“I’ve met a lot of famous people now in my life,” the three-time Super Bowl champion told Time in his Tuesday (April 16) cover story. “Taylor’s probably the most down-to-earth person that’s been on that stage for that long.”
“She’s never not working,” he continued. “Even when she’s taking her downtime, she’s working on something. Shooting a music video or singing a song or writing a song. You can see it by how she talks. Even when she’s talking about , when she’s learning it, you can see her business mind putting it together.”
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Mind you, Swift wasn’t even interested in the NFL before she and Kelce became an item, as the offensive lineman revealed on a recent episode of his New Heights podcast. But now?
“It’s almost like she’s trying to become a coach,” added Mahomes. “‘Why can’t you try this, this, and this?’ She’s asking the right questions.”
Swift has been a key part of Chiefs Kingdom since last fall, when she first started attending games at Arrowhead Stadium to support Kelce. Between then and the 2024 Super Bowl — where she was on hand to help celebrate after Kansas City scored its second victory in a row — the 14-time Grammy winner has made friends with players such as Mecole Hardman, as well as Brittany Mahomes, who is married to the team’s star quarterback.
The superstar’s presence quantifiably gave the Chiefs a major boost in exposure, which some critics speculated was becoming too distracting when the team went through a rough patch mid-season, but Patrick told Time that his team paid it no mind. “[The Chiefs] went from a nationwide team that was kind of global to a full global worldwide team,” he said. “That came from Taylor’s fanbase.”
“We just embraced it,” he continued. “We like having that visibility. At the end of the day, football has always been this bruising sport. We want to make it fun, where kids grow up and play football and show their personality and be who they are. This year really magnified that.”
See Patrick Mahomes on the cover of Time below.