Young, a former BYU quarterback, worries about how Travis Kelce’s relationship with Taylor Swift is affecting the Chiefs’ organization
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship has been the talk of the NFL this season, and even Hall of Famer Steve Young has weighed in on the romance.
In his appearance on the “Dying to Ask” podcast Thursday, Young was asked about his thoughts on the couple’s high-profile relationship, and he had a unique take: He feels bad for quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“It’s unheard of, what’s happened. The world’s most famous person suddenly starts to date an NFL football player,” he said. “It’s insane.”
Young said that because football is a sport that relies so heavily on routine that “injecting something else to think about or to talk about” can be a distraction for players.
“Look, Taylor doesn’t mean to be a distraction. She wants to come watch the game. Travis doesn’t mean to be a distraction,” he said. “But the unintended effect is that everyone is like distracted and that’s actually not great for football. … It’s hard to play football. It’s hard to be really good in the NFL, so you don’t want to do anything that makes it harder. And Taylor Swift at the game in a weird way makes it hard because of the distraction. It’s not anyone’s fault. It just is.”
Why does Steve Young feel bad for Patrick Mahomes?
His comments echo what he told ESPN’s Seth Wickersham earlier this month that “when it happened, I felt bad for Patrick.”
“When you have an outside force, it puts this weight on everyone,” he said. “They don’t feel it necessarily, but if you step back, it’s like, holy hell. You’ve got this thing you’re dragging around. Everyone has to manage it. Anyone who says it’s not part of it is lying to themselves.”
On the podcast, the former BYU quarterback credited Kelce’s teammates, including Mahomes, and the Kansas City Chiefs coaching staff for how they’ve handled the increased attention.
“I think it’s been fun to watch the Chiefs embrace it — handle it really, pretty gracefully — and then go through the increased difficulty and overcome it,” he said.
Young has even imagined a dream scenario for the couple this season that had the podcast’s host, Deirdre Fitzpatrick, suggest he consider a career writing romantic comedies.
“There’s a part of me that’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, can you imagine if they go to the Super Bowl and she sings the national anthem and then Travis comes onto the field and they kiss?’” he said. “It could explode the internet forever.”
Unfortunately for Young, another country artist will have that honor this year. Roc Nation announced Reba McEntire will perform the national anthem on Feb. 11, as the Deseret News previously reported.