IF THEIR ROMANCE IS REAL, WHY ARE TAYLOR AND TRAVIS SO MEDIA-CENTRIC?

Whatever they did in New York didn’t have to be viewed so often, but everywhere they went — including Swift’s apartment overnight — was so paparazzi-friendly that the pictures actually looked set up

     If Travis Kelce left Meduza Mediterrania in New York’s Meatpacking District and caroused to Taylor Swift’s apartment — for a night of whatever two 33-year-olds do after she dined with Blake Lively, Sophie Turner and Patrick Mahomes’ wife — let me say this: These are acts of two human beings.

     They can have sex. They can play her songs and, hey, even his. And when it’s time for Kelce to recall why he was in town, for a Sunday night game at MetLife Stadium, he can leave Swift’s place in late morning and let himself be followed into her Range Rover, which took him to a New Jersey team hotel where he said “good morning” to folks in the lobby.

     What I must know is why do they cave to the media?

     Every paparazzi type in the Eastern flurry of the United States was aware Kelce was coming to town, where Swift has one of her many places, and that late on a Saturday evening, they actually might hook up as a fledgling couple. Wouldn’t they want to keep their dating path on the sly, a bit, from the New York Post? Why was Swift hanging out with friends, including Mahomes’ wife, at Emilio’s Ballato in Soho — where all four were shown arriving as if the paps already knew? Why was Kelce walking near Meduza, as if the paps already knew? And when it was time to leave her house, why was it so convenient to open the door and let him get in the car?

     Do they want the world to know even more — when we already know more than we want? Swift is the biggest entertainer of her day. Kelce has been a burgeoning media presence. They’ve given us their stories, how they met, what brought them this far, and now, the media are treated to wide-open glimpses in gawker city? There’s a side of me that wants to think this romance is fake, that both are just giddy kids starting to grow up with aid from marketing wizards. But they’d be the greatest actors on Earth to keep pulling this off, with NBC whipping up the scene via a Swift mention about 15 seconds into a pre-game show, then another big reference 30 seconds later, then a shot of Kelce entering the field with a grin for warm-ups, then a Maria Taylor mention of Swift, and then, after some Sunday afternoon highlights, the first of many ads for Swift and her Eras Tour. It shows her pop pilgrimage resumes in U.S. theaters starting Oct. 13.

     I’m guessing, she didn’t pay for it. By now, if this wasn’t real, someone would say so. Right? Sure enough, there was Swift, arriving at 7:42 p.m. ET in a black top with jeans at a VIP entry. Then she was sitting in a Kelce suite for the second straight weekend with the likes of Turner, Lively and Ryan Reynolds, starting at 4:55 p.m. And another shot of mingling, still 10 minutes from kickoff. Oh, there were two Kelce ads, too, and a story about his media influences. And Mike Tirico saying hi to “Swifties” while Cris Collinsworth almost fell on the floor laughing, as Taylor lifted a drink and yelled, “Whooooooo!” All before the damned game.

     Something is happening, you think? It may last a while, or maybe not that long. Swifties are in love with the story, pushing audience numbers over the top for an otherwise unimportant game between Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs and the forlorn New York Jets. And while the NFL’s senior vice president of social, influencer and content marketing spoke over the weekend — Ian Trombetta is his name — and claimed the Chiefs aren’t using the Kelce-Swift relationship to fuel their fan base, the league certainly isn’t distancing at all. If more millions watch a game when they’d be doing something else without the two lovemates, commissioner Roger Goodell gladly will take the newcomers — many of whom are young, female and want nothing to do with football unless it’s a Swift moment.

     “Another thing that’s been a little surprising is that it really hasn’t slowed down. It’s continued to build in this momentum of conversation,” Trombetta told CBS. “It’s been honestly unlike anything we’ve seen from a regular season perspective in the sense that we have celebrities and influencers and big creators that are at games every single week. And while it drives interest and discussion online, this was something we’ve never seen before.”

     Meaning, other celebrities at games are shocked that one singer can show up and change American lifestyles. If they haven’t noticed, every Swift appearance over the summer widely enhanced local economies. The NFL is the latest to cash in, one gargantuan TV moment taking advantage of entertainment’s supremacy. “We don’t want to get to a place where we’re turning off our most avid fans and we certainly want to be sensitive to the platform selection as well,” Trombetta said. “And what that looks like for us is that we’re not going to be stationed outside of Taylor’s house trying to get photos and things like that.”

     No. There’s already plenty of that. The one productive element is how this removed attention from Aaron Rodgers, at the stadium with his Achilles tear to help the troops, telling them to ignore local fans and Joe Namath while Zach Wilson played much better in a close loss. Stop worrying about the letter sent to the Jets by Colin Kaepernick, who hasn’t played since 2016. All the talk is about the two. Why didn’t Taylor replace Carrie Underwood on the game theme?

     Why? Swift doesn’t need more attention. Nor does Kelce. Will they keep milking it? Where are the Chiefs next weekend? Minnesota. The following two weeks? Back in Kansas City, where Swift is aware of the town. Then she’s off to Argentina for the resumption of her tour, which will break $1 billion in sales as the highest-grossing extravaganza ever.

     This while the Chiefs try to win another Super Bowl, with Mahomes still the face of the league, throwing his 200th touchdown pass Sunday. He did make it known how much easier his life has become as Kelce indulges. The quarterback also said at halftime, after sluggish play led to two interceptions before rambling later with his legs: “I’m going to stop bull(bleeping).” What did that mean? He said after the 23-20 win, “I knew I put us in two bad positions. No one points fingers in that locker room. We all play together. Not everything is going to be pretty, but the guys responded and found a way.”

     At some point, the NFL will remind us why the games are played — not for TikToks and Instagram reels — and Chiefs coach Andy Reid might inquire about a night-before curfew for his tight end. For now, what the hell? They are 3-1 with no touchdown passes for an underused Kelce, yet Taylor did an “End Game” soiree with fists pounded when the win was over. She also did a dance as Isiah Pacheco scored. Team girl, huh?

     The doubters will say this is Swift’s way of promoting her world tour, which happened three times before the first quarter expired. If so, does she really do two football suites with the same people on two weekends? She could be on her own self-contained island and still promote the theater stuff. Nah, for now, she’s into Travis Kelce, whatever that means, until next week.

     They show up on video. They won’t talk about it. “What’s real is that you know, it is my personal life,” Kelce said on his podcast last week. “I want to respect both of our lives. She’s not in the media as much as I am doing this show every single week and having fun during the NFL season on other guys’ shows.

     “I’m enjoying life.”

     Behind the studio, beyond the locker room, these are people. Let them live, but they could help by letting football be football and not thoroughly intercepting it. Taylor Swift is bigger than it all. We know that. Stop reminding us.

###

     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.