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Travis Kelce: When Taylor Swift's Favorite Football Player Tackled SNL

With Travis Kelce & Taylor Swift all over the news, here's a look back to when the Kansas City Chiefs star tackled NBC's Saturday Night Live.

Make sure to mark down September 24, 2023, as a very important date. Because that's when the world anointed the next… Pop Culture Power Couple! After sharing on a podcast that he missed out on a chance to give her a friendship bracelet personally and then inviting her to attend one of his games at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce had a pretty popular fan in attendance to watch him & the Chiefs beat up on the Chicago Bears. Checking out the game in a suite box beside Kelce's mother was none other than singing & songwriting phenomenon Taylor Swift – who seemingly let fly with "Let's f***ing go!" after Kelce scored a touchdown. While nothing has been officially confirmed, rumblings of the two being in a possible relationship have gotten louder over the past few weeks. Now, if you ask us? We're not surprised – in fact, we have a pretty good idea of what it was that won over Swift (allegedly) because we called it back in March of this year. That's when Kelce hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live (with musical guest Kelsea Ballerini), getting the season back on track after a disaster of an episode with host Woody Harrelson. By the end of his opening monologue, Kelce proved that he definitely had a future in the entertainment industry off of the football field (though he would be great on color commentary). Here's a look back at how Kelce won us over, as well as the promo work he did heading into his turn hosting the long-running late-night sketch comedy/music series.

Saturday Night Live: Travis Kelce & Kelsea Ballerini Highlights

Before we look at specific sketches, I want to make it clear that everything worked this week. Kelce has a future in front of the camera, and that was never more evident than during his opening monologue. With "Weekend Update," we had Colin Jost & Michael Che running with the kind of relaxed vibe that comes from having about 40 minutes of great lead-in. And if you weren't tearing up by the time Ballerini wrapped "Penthouse," then there's a very good chance that you're missing a heart (so you might want to get that looked at). As for the sketches? Each of them is deserving of attention, but I'm not sure you want this to be a 2000-word review that constantly tells you how this show might just dethrone the Pedro Pascal-hosted effort as the best of the season so far (though Wednesday star Jenna Ortega & The 1975 are set for next weekend). Instead, here's a rundown of sketches that had our brains lighting up the most:

"American Girl Café": The best sketch to start with following his monologue because it showed the audience that Kelce was a first-timer who was outside of film & television and willing to give himself over to "The SNL Process."

"Please Don't Destroy – Self-Defense": Once again, Kelce puts himself into the hands of skilled writers like Martin Herlihy, John Higgins & Ben Marshall, and what we end up with is a wonderfully absurd take on self-confidence, interns, motivational speakers, and the sweet, sweet satisfaction of checking an old woman against the wall hard when she tries to kill your friend.

"Straight Male Friend": A filmed fake ad that rises and falls on how well we buy into Bowen Yang and Kelce having a gay man/straight man friendship. Based on the social media reactions last night, as well as those from friends of mine online, the duo definitely hit some strong points. And as I'm writing this, I'm pretty sure that at least two female friends of mine are offering apologies for not realizing what a "burden" they are to their gay male friends (and possibly taking them out to brunch).

"Family Meeting": A great spotlight for Ego Nwodim & James Austin Johnson (with Kelce on-point supporting) about kids dealing with learning about their parents' evolving sexuality… through song. Between this and "Mama's Funeral," Nwodim continues to be one of the comedic forces who keep us tuning in. But bonus points need to go to Johnson for an amazing Michael MacDonald impersonation.

"Garrett from Hinge": Just in case the revelation is still lost on anyone out there, this was the sketch that hit the pause button to offer a reminder that Bowen Yang should teach a class in sketch-saving because his superpowers were on fine display once again. I know I had no right laughing about Garrett (Yang) needing to convince himself in the bathroom mirror not to kill the couple in the room on the other side of the door (Kelce & Heidi Gardner) – and yet? Yup… laughed my ass off. And more bonus points to Yang for imitating the pose that the Family Guy character Stewie had on Garrett's t-shirt.

Saturday Night Live: Travis Kelce's Week in Review

Here's a look back at Kelce, Marcello Hernandez, Ego Nwodim, and Bowen Yang during the midweek sketch, where Kelce got to channel his inner "Indiana Jones" (along with the Instagram post above, which shows Kelce during read-thru):

And here's a look back at SNL's welcome/intro video for Kelce & Ballerini from earlier that week:

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