All’s fair in love and football if you ask Atlanta Falcons safety Jessie Bates, who is preparing to play Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Falcons and the Chiefs will face off against each other on Sunday, September 22 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“Once that clock ticks and we in between those lines, you know, I see red sometimes. I might say some crazy stuff to him,” Bates, 27, quipped during the Friday, September 20, episode of the Pacman Jones Show. “It may involve Taylor [Swift, or] it may not, but it’s just part of the game — talking your little smack.”
Swift, 34, has been a fixture at Kelce’s Chiefs games ever since they started dating in 2023. The KC tight end, also 34, was admittedly a fan of her music before they connected. Bates, however, takes a different approach.
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“I don’t listen to much Taylor Swift, but obviously you gotta respect for, you know, what she’s done with her career,” Bates confessed. “And then, with Travis, obviously, you got to have some type of respect with him.”
It is not presently known whether Swift will step out at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday to support Kelce. She previously cheered on him during his first two home games of the season.
“Football is awesome, it turns out,” Swift gushed to TIME in her 2023 Person of the Year profile. “I’ve been missing out my whole life.”
Swift’s newfound love of the gridiron is evident to her boyfriend and his teammates.
Every Time Taylor Swift Attended an NFL Game to Cheer for Travis Kelce
“She asked a lot of great questions. She’s already drawing up plays,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said in an NBC interview last month, joking he “might have to put one” of Swift’s plays into action.
Kelce, meanwhile, stressed that Swift’s plays have yet to be seen by Mahomes, 29, or coach Andy Reid.
“She’s a little biased and just creates plays for me, so we’ll see if they can make it to Coach Reid’s office,” Kelce said on the Rich Eisen Show earlier this month. “Well you just got to give me the option [to be open], you know, that’s basically — I’m letting her know, just give me the option.”
According to Kelce, the pop star’s approach to her career influenced how she wanted to learn the game rules.
“I think what makes her so good at her profession is that she’s so detailed in every aspect of it — from the words to the music to, you know, even the releases and the music videos and everything,” he explained. “She’s so detailed and a part of it that I think she was just curious about the profession.”
