Patrick Mahomes wants partial credit for his Kansas City Chiefs teammate Travis Kelce’s romance with Taylor Swift.

“I like to take some of the credit because I was the one who invited Travis to his first Taylor concert when [he brought] the friendship bracelet,” Mahomes, 28, quipped during a “Pat McAfee Show” appearance on Thursday, May 23. “He was sitting in my suite, so I feel like I was the matchmaker.”

The quarterback added, “I feel like I had some input there, as well. I was like, ‘Dude, you should go for it.’ And you know Travis, man, he does it … and I’m glad it’s all worked out.”

Kelce, 34, famously attended one of Swift’s July 2023 Eras Tour concerts at the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium, armed with a DIY friendship bracelet with his phone number spelled out in beads. While Kelce was eager to present the beaded bauble to Swift, also 34, she apparently did not want to meet.
The Chiefs tight end recalled the tale on his and brother Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast weeks later, noting he was “butthurt” by the rejection. Swift ultimately listened to Travis’ plea and got in touch.

“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” the pop star gushed in her 2023 TIME Person of the Year profile. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for because we got to get to know each other.”

Swift and Travis took their romance public in September 2023 when she went to her first Chiefs game. The Grammy winner, who watched the football game with Travis’ friends and family from a private suite, later attended 12 more of his NFL games.

After Swift cheered on Travis’ Super Bowl victory in February, they have been enjoying his offseason. In that time, Swift kicked off the European leg of her Eras shows, and Travis supported her in the crowd at multiple shows.

“Taylor’s shows are unbelievable,” Travis exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month at his Kelce Jam music festival in Bonner Springs, Kansas. “If you haven’t been to them, you got to try it.”

Swift, meanwhile, was absent at the festival as she had an Eras concert in Stockholm on the same day. She and Travis had previously come up with a plan to manage long distances during their respective work commitments. (Travis started Chiefs OTAs practice earlier this week.)