Taylor Swift Made Travis Kelce a Different Man, According to His Coach

“She actually affected the team in a positive way. It wasn’t a negative way. Everybody was excited and Travis was happy,” the Kansas City Chiefs defensive backs coach Dave Merritt revealed on The Sports Shop Podcast With Reese & K-Mac, per Page Six. He went on to describe the overall boost Swift gave the team by boosting Kelce’s spirits: “So when my player, a brother, is happy beside me, that helps me and that encourages me, and so Travis came in there a different man. So, she helped us.”

Any concern that all the attention on Swift would derail the Chiefs’ playing was dispelled when they won the Super Bowl in Las Vegas earlier this year. As Merritt quipped, “[Taylor Swift] won a Super Bowl in her first year in the NFL.”

He also weighed in on the much-debated amount of screen time given to the pop star during her attendance at games. “There were so many people that were hating the fact that she was being shown on the TV that, you know what? You’re part of our family because you’re now with Travis,” he said. “So, therefore, you’re our little sister…. You’re part of our family.”

This echoes what other members of the Chiefs team have been saying, basically, that they accept her. In December, quarterback Patrick Mahomes recalled, “[Kelce] started bringing Taylor around and you realize how cool of a person she was and she is. So for us—I mean, it was a couple of jokes here and there in the beginning—but now she’s just part of Chiefs Kingdom and she’s part of the team.”