Louis Rees-Zammit didn’t ultimately make the Kansas City Chiefs 2024-25 roster, but he left with one heck of a parting gift.
Rees-Zammit, 23, was cut by the Chiefs in August before the buzzed-about Welsh rugby star saw any regular season action. However, he departed with a keepsake from Taylor Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“I went to her concert and I got a handwritten note from her,” Rees-Zammit revealed on RugbyPass TV. “Pretty crazy.”
Rees-Zammit, a celebrated rugby star who left to sport to chase his “dream” of playing in the NFL, hit up Swift’s Eras Tour in his hometown of Cardiff, Wales in June.
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“This was before training camp,” Rees-Zammit said of the letter. “So it was like, ‘Good luck for the season, good luck for training camp. Heard you’re doing well.’ Just stuff like that. That was pretty cool.”
Rees-Zammit, who signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars after being cut by the Chiefs, told host Jim Hamilton that the cherished letter is being kept safe back home in Cardiff.
“I didn’t bring it out to America with me,” he said with a smile.
During the interview, Rees-Zammit also gushed about the culture and camaraderie built within the Chiefs organization by Kelce, 35, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“When I signed, I went home for 10 days and got to see some friends before I actually flew back out to Kansas City,” Rees-Zammit recalled. “I had a message from both Travis and Patrick on Instagram welcoming me to the team.”
The rugby star admitted it took a minute to adjust to being in the presence of such accomplished football icons on a daily basis.
“It was pretty crazy the first time I’d seen them in person, but then they’re your teammates,” he said. “I got used to it pretty quick. We built connections. We did stuff off the field. That’s what the Chiefs are very good at, the bonding off the field.”
Rees-Zammit added, “They’re just normal people. They’re so humble. You see all this stuff in the media, how big they are. But they are the most humble people that I’ve ever met.”
After signing with the Jaguars’ practice squad in August, Rees-Zammit switched from running back to wide receiver. And while he’s yet to be promoted to the team’s active roster, Rees-Zammit insisted he’ll be ready if the time comes.
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“I’m learning quick and I’m working hard every single day,” he told Jaguars.com’s John Oehser.
Rees-Zammit has impressed Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor with his tenacity.
“It’s been fun just to watch him grow in football,” Taylor, 36, told Oehser. “Every single week, you just see him get a little bit better — throughout the drill portions into when he’s on the scout team serving the defense. He’s hungry for it. He is talented.”
Taylor continued, “It’s new to him. Take anybody and drop him in a new sport and it’s at the professional level, there’s going to be a lot of learning. But he does have some physical skill set that’s fun to see and see what he can become moving forward.”
