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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were riding high after the Kansas City Chiefs’ big win Thursday night (Sept. 5).
The 2024-25 season kicked off with the team defeating the Baltimore Ravens 27-20 at Arrowhead Stadium, where the 34-year-old pop star was present to cheer on her favorite tight end alongside his family and friends in a box suite. Immediately afterward, Swift filmed a video with Chariah Gordon — who is engaged to wide receiver Mecole Hardman — celebrating the reigning Super Bowl champions carrying over their winning streak from last season.
“Post-game interview with Chariah,” the 14-time Grammy winner tells the camera in the clip, which was posted on Women of The NFL’s Instagram Story. “I’m feeling fantastic.”
After Kelce changed out of his uniform, he and Swift exited the stadium holding hands and smiling at fans who cheered as the couple walked past. The “So High School” singer sported a denim crop top and shorts paired with red thigh-high boots, while the 34-year-old athlete wore a white-to-brown ombre shirt-and-pants set.
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Fans were happy to see Swift back at Arrowhead seven months after she last cheered on the Chiefs at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, laughing with Kelce’s parents and banging on the suite’s glass barrier with excitement. She’s currently on break from her global Eras Tour, on which the New Heights podcaster spent much of his offseason tagging along all over the world.
At one point, NFL cameras captured Swift celebrating one of Kelce’s plays by hugging his mom, Donna, and applauding with a big smile on her face.
The game came one day after Kelce’s reps slammed an “entirely false” media plan that circulated online this week, allegedly outlining the publicity strategy he has in place in case he and Swift ever break up. “We have engaged our legal team to initiate proceedings against the individuals or entities responsible for the unlawful and injurious forgery of documents,” one spokesperson continued in a statement to E! News, adding that the papers were “not created, issued, or authorized by this agency.”
Regardless, it doesn’t seem like a breakup is coming any time soon for the couple, as Kelce gushed about his significant other in a recent interview with CBS Mornings. “It’s the life I chose, I guess,” he said of being known as Swift’s arm candy. “I have fun with it. It comes with the territory of wanting to do fun activities like this.”
Watch clips of Swift and Kelce post-win below.
They don’t call her mastermind for nothing. When she isn’t crafting songs, albums and concert setlists, Taylor Swift apparently draws up plays, as revealed by Patrick Mahomes in a new interview. While speaking to Chris Simms for NFL on NBC in a video posted Thursday (Aug. 29), the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback gushed about the […]
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Showing off your pride for your favorite team during NFL preseason just got a lot trendier. Sports merchandising brand Foco has […]
Taylor Swift has nothing to worry about when it comes to crooning competition from boyfriend Travis Kelce. While Swift is gearing up for a weekend of Eras Tour shows in Milan, Italy, Super Bowl champ Kelce was taking the stage at the American Century Championship charity golf tournament on Thursday (July 11), skipping the ESPY […]
Jason Kelce was a Super Bowl champ, a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and retired last year after 13 seasons as one of the NFL‘s most reliable, indomitable centers to ever play the game. But in a recent appearance on comedian Andrew Santino’s Whiskey Ginger podcast, the second-most-famous Kelce said that his, and his family’s life, have definitely been given a make-over thanks to brother Travis Kelce‘s high-profile relationship with Taylor Swift.
Santino asked how Jason’s wife, Kylie Kelce, has been handling the spotlight since her brother-in-law began dating the biggest pop star in the world last summer and if she finds the added scrutiny to be annoying or kind of fun. “I think it’s both,” Jason said, noting that the Prime Video documentary Kelce following her husband’s 2022-2023 season with the Philadelphia Eagles may have helped prime Kylie for the avalanche of attention; the doc debuted in September, right around the time Swift and Travis Kelce made their romance official.
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“I think she’s a little big uncomfortable with, I guess, how much it’s become and our family’s out there, like people know what our kids look like,” he said of the couple’s three young daughters. “We’ve tried to retract from that a little bit. But I think she enjoys the fact that she gets to go and do charitable outings and she gets to give back to the community.”
That said, they both understand that the scrutiny comes with the territory of fame and even if it gets to be “too much” at times, Jason said the microscope on his younger brother is beyond anything he could imagine. “Travis and Taylor have taken it to another level and that’s a whole other side of it,” said Jason. “Kylie and I think we have it bad, and then we go hang out with one of them for a second. This is a whole other situation here. I don’t even know how to, like… you can’t be a normal person at that point.”
Despite the more intense spotlight, Jason said he hasn’t seen Travis turn into someone else. “I haven’t seen him change one bit,” Jason Kelce said of his three-time Super Bowl-winning brother. “I think it’s a compliment. He stayed true to himself. He’s still humble. He treats everyone with the utmost respect, like they’re equals regardless of who they are.”
Travis echoed that emotion in a Good Morning America interview last week, in which he said that he’s always been a “very grounded guy” and that he’s “so fortunate, so grateful” for all the opportunities that have come his way lately.
Watch Jason Kelce talk about fame and navigating the Traylor attention below.
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A lot of responsibility comes with being a professional athlete. Patrick Mahomes has commented on the off field behavior of Rashee Rice and Harrison Butker.
This week the Kansas City Chiefs commenced their organized team activities. As expected their star quarterback spoke to the press and he received some questions regarding his teammates Harrison Butker and Rashee Rice. Earlier this month Butker made some very polarizing comments during a speech he made at Benedictine College where he suggested that the female graduates in the crowd would get more personal fulfillment in their lives by being homemakers. Additionally, he took a strong stance against the LGBT+ community.
Patrick Mahomes made it clear he doesn’t share the same thoughts as Butker. “There’s certain things that he said that I don’t necessarily agree with, but I understand the person that he is, and he is trying to do whatever he can to lead people in the right direction,” Patrick said. “And that might not be the same values as I have. But at the same time, I’m going to judge him by the character that he shows every single day. That’s a great person, and we’ll continue to move along and try to help build each other up to make ourselves better every single day” he added.
Rashee Rice also was a subject of conversation as the wide receiver was involved in a serious car accident in Dallas last month. Additionally, he was alleged to have involvement in an assault that took place at a Dallas nightclub on May 6. Patrick Mahomes expressed his support and said no one is perfect. “I think it’s just trying to do whatever we can to teach him how to learn from his mistakes,” he said. “I mean, obviously, that was a big mistake. But you have to learn from it, make sure it doesn’t happen again and try to do whatever you can to be the best person you can be in society, not only for yourself but for the people around you.”
The Kansas City Chiefs kick off their 2024 NFL season against the Baltimore Ravens on September 5.
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Source: Netflix / NFL
Netflix has made a deal with the National Football League, the first of its kind for the streaming giant.
According to reports, Netflix is now a member of the sports streaming game as it has entered into a partnership with the National Football League. The deal is set for three years beginning with the upcoming 2024-2025 season. The deal will also include two Christmas Day games to be aired this year. The two games that Netflix will carry on Christmas Day will be rivalry games – the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to take on the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, and the Baltimore Ravens head to NRG Stadium to face off against the Houston Texans. The Pittsburgh and Kansas City game holds a potential surge in viewing thanks to Taylor Swift’s huge fan base (she’s currently dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce).
The streaming giant is expanding its sports offerings, having finalized a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment for the rights to stream its weekly flagship show “Raw”. It’s set to stream the highly anticipated match between social media influencer Jake Paul and boxing legend Mike Tyson in July. The move falls in line with Netflix’s aggressive foray into live events within the past few years. It recently played host to “The Roast of Tom Brady”, which ranked as its highest-rated English language show within the past two weeks.
“Last year, we decided to take a big bet on live — tapping into massive fandoms across comedy, reality TV, sports and more,” Bela Bejaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in a statement. “There are no live annual events, sports or otherwise, that compare with the audiences N.F.L. football attracts.” Netflix’s entry into a game where Amazon has currently locked down Thursday night games since 2022 and NBC’s Peacock landed a playoff game in a landmark deal last season is set to have a serious impact. “Getting the king of premium streamers to say we are in the sports business for real is a pretty big deal for television,” said Lightshed Partners technology analyst Richard Greenfield. “Because it doesn’t matter what this means now — it just shows you you’ve got another serious bidder for sports rights.”
A viral question aimed at women has spread around the internet over the last few weeks: Would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or with a bear? After listening to Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s bigoted commencement address at Benedictine College, singer Maren Morris has her answer.
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In a post to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday (May 15), Morris shared a clip from Butker’s address, in which the footballer claimed that the graduating women had “the most diabolical lies” told to them, and encouraging them to consider taking on “one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.” Morris summed up her feelings on Butker’s comments — and on the aforementioned question — in just four words: “I choose the bear,” she wrote.
Morris is far from the only celebrity to criticize Butker’s comments. In a post to his X account on Tuesday (May 14), rapper Flavor Flav called out Butker and encouraged him to, respectfully, stop talking. “Sounds like some players ‘need to stay in their lanes’ and shouldn’t be giving commencement speeches,” he wrote.
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Meanwhile, Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, responded to Butker’s anti-LGBTQ comments made throughout his address — including saying that Pride Month represented “deadly sins” — calling them “a clear miss,” as well as “inaccurate, ill-informed, and woefully out of step with Americans about Pride, LGBTQ people and women.”
The speech began blowing up online thanks, in part, to the fact that Butker quoted lyrics from Taylor Swift’s “Bejeweled” during his speech. Speaking about bishops who derive pleasure “from the adulation they receive from their parishioners,” Butker made sure to quote “my teammate’s girlfriend” in saying “‘Familiarity breeds contempt.’”
After many called for the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs to comment on Butker’s speech, Jonathan Beane, senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer for the league, shared a statement with People on Wednesday. “Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity,” he said. “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
Billboard has not yet heard back from the Chiefs after a request for comment.
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The 2024 NFL Draft is rolling into the Motor City! The three-day draft event kicks off on Thursday (April 25) at 8 p.m. ET.
According to the NFL, the draft will take place in the downtown Detroit area surrounding Campus Martius and Hart Plaza.
Draft Experience, the NFL’s interactive, -themed park where fans can test out their football skills, visit interactive exhibits, autograph sessions, pose with the Vince Lombardi trophy, shop exclusive merchandise and more. The Draft Experience is presented by Rocket Mortgage.
Big Sean will headline the 2024 NFL Draft Concert Series on Thursday at 6:15 p.m. The Detroit Youth Choir is scheduled for Friday and Bazzi on Saturday. The free concert will begin before Round 1 on Thursday and Round 3 on Friday.
Saturday’s performance will take place after the draft at Draft Theater. Visit NFL.com/draftevent for free passes.
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The NFL draft will include a total of seven rounds. Over the next three days, 257 players will be selected. Currently, the Chicago Bears have the first pick, followed by the Washington Commanders and New England Patriots. The Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Chargers round out the top five.
Read on to find out all the ways to watch the 2024 NFL draft.
How to Watch the NFL Draft for Free
The first round of the 2024 NFL draft will air at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes and NFL Network.
How can you stream the 2024 NFL Draft for free? Sports lovers who don’t have cable or access to live television can watch the draft on platforms such as DirecTV and Fubo TV, which offer ABC, ESPN, NFL Network and hundreds of other live and on-demand channels; plus DVR and multiple device streams for less than $80 per month.
You can watch and stream the 2024 NFL Draft on your TV, smart phone, tablet and other streaming devices via the ESPN app, ABC app and NFL+.
NFL+ offers access to the NFL Network, NFL Training camps and other off-season content, regular season games, postseason games and much more. Plans start at $6.99/month.
Want more streaming deals? Join Sling TV for just $20 for the first month. Subscribers can stream over 32 channels on Sling TV including ESPN, TNT, TLC, Bravo, FX and local channels such as ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox (in select regions.)
Another streaming option: Hulu + Live TV. You’ll get a three-day free trial, plus access to 90+ channels in addition to Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+.
Those who already have access to local channels via an antenna, cable, satellite, etc., have the option of watching the NFL draft on ABC and ABC.com in addition to ESPN, so long as your cable or streaming plan allows it.
Streaming from outside of the U.S.? Watch the draft with a free trial from Express VPN.
Lastly, if you won’t be able to watch but still want to hear all of the festivities, the 2024 NFL draft will be available on ESPN Radio.
Big Sean won’t ever suit up in an NFL game, but he’ll have his name called at the NFL Draft and walk across that stage for other reasons. That’s because Detroit’s own Big Sean has been announced as the league’s official headliner for the Bud Light NFL Draft Concert Series when the draft comes to the D next week, from April 25 to 27.
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Sean Don is set to perform ahead of round one of the NFL Draft next Thursday (April 25), when he’ll take the Draft Theater stage around 6:15 p.m. ET to warm up the thousands in the Campus Martius Park audience.
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“With the Draft coming to Detroit, we knew the importance of representing the rich cultural history and music legacy of this city as part of our NFL Draft Concert Series,” Tim Tubito, director of event presentation and content at the NFL, said in a statement.
“With an incredible lineup of headliners who all hail from the region, we’re excited for these great artists to help us create an amazing on-site experience for our fans and prospects.”
The Detroit Youth Choir will hit the stage on day two (April 26), and Michigan native Bazzi will close out the concert series with a performance on Saturday night (April 27). The NFL Draft Concert Series is completely free of charge for fans, and general admission with be on a first-come-first-served basis.
Those seeking entry to the draft festivities just need to sign up for the NFL OnePass app. Attendees can also head to the nearby Hart Plaza for the Draft Experience, which will host player appearances, exhibits, games and more.
The 2024 NFL Draft kicks off at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday night (April 25) with the Chicago Bears on the clock; the team is widely expected to select USC quarterback Calebl Williams with the first pick.
ESPN will be broadcasting wall-to-wall coverage as the home of the NFL Draft all weekend.
As for Big Sean, he ended his hiatus with his comeback single “Precision” in March. Sean Don promised an album “coming soon” during his soulful Tiny Desk concert, and will become an author with his first book, Go Higher, arriving later this year.
See the announcement of Big Sean’s NFL Draft performance below: