In Taylor Swift’s song “So High School,” she sings, “you know how to ball, I know Aristotle,” which I’ve always interpreted as Travis Kelce is a football expert and she’s the writing expert. I mean, when Tayvis got engaged, their Instagram caption even joked about them being gym and English teachers who were getting married. However, now the pop star does in fact know ball, and her husband shared a surprising take about just how much of an expert she’s become.
Famously, on Swift and Kelce’s first date, the singer asked the football player what it was like to face off against his brother on the field. Well…Travis and Jason Kelce both played on offense, so they never actually faced off. Tom Cruise brought this story up when he appeared on the Kelce brothers’ podcast, New Heights, and that’s what led to his take on how much his wife now knows about the game he’s been playing professionally for well over a decade:
Now, she knows everything. She sees the flags coming in like, ‘Oh, that might be a defensive hold.’ I'm just like, ‘What? What did you say, sweetie?’ She was like, ‘That's encroachment.’ I'm like, ‘Do you know what that is?’ Yeah, she's on it now.
Right after that, Travis’ brother, Jason, chimed in to explain how fun it was to see the "Opalite" singer learn about football, because she was so invested in it. Cruise also admitted that the pop star was “schooling” him. So, she really is the expert now.
Swift herself has spoken about this and shown off her love for the game on a few occasions. In her End of an Era docuseries, which goes behind the scenes of the Eras Tour and can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription, you can see her watching a game while practicing for a show. She memorably screamed about what happened in the game as she was singing a song.
Plus, a year ago, when Swift appeared on New Heights, she recalled the story of her first date with Travis and explained how her love for the game has evolved:
Oh my god, I fell in love with it. I became obsessed with it. I became like a person who was running through the halls of my house screaming, ‘We drafted Xavier Worty!’ And my friends are like, ‘What is - who body-snatched you? What do you mean, we drafted Xavier Worthy?’
For context, Xavier Worthy is a wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs, and he was drafted in 2024. The "You Belong with Me" singer made her first appearance at one of Travis’s games in 2023, and now it’s been three years of her rooting for that team. Her expertise has clearly grown too, and she even joked about that on her husband’s podcast, saying:
I’m not ready to be an analyst right now, but give me 16 months.
Well, it’s been a year since she said that, and she’s now married to Travis Kelce. And if we give her a few more months, maybe we can see her on ESPN commentating on the games. Clearly, she knows what she’s talking about, and Tom Cruise had a blast chatting about the game with Swift while they watched the Chiefs play. Now, I’d like to see this expertise on display too.
For now, though, I’ll take Travis Kelce’s word on it. He didn’t hold back about how far his partner has come since they started dating, and it’s very obvious that these days, she really knows ball.
