Everybody knew something big was coming when cameras spotted Tom Cruise sitting next to Taylor Swift at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 1 game against the Denver Broncos. Then, the actor, producer, and Hollywood legend dropped in on the New Heights podcast to talk about his new movie Digger, as well as what it was like sitting up there in that suite with Travis Kelce’s squad. When the conversation turned to football, Travis revealed that Taylor now “knows everything” about the game.
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“She sees the flags coming in like, ‘Oh, that might be a defensive hold,’” Travis said. “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.”
Even Travis’s brother, Jason Kelce, admitted that when he first met Swift at a Buffalo Bills game, she was incredibly “into football, asking questions.” But it’s been a long time since that January 2024 playoff game, and Taylor knows her stuff now – something that was quite evident for the man sitting next to her on Monday.
“Yeah, she was schooling me,” Cruise admitted on the podcast. “Like, this happened, that’s happened. He’s coming in, it was awesome.”
Jason and Travis connect Taylor’s drive to consume knowledge to what Cruise does himself. It’s not just about her football knowledge, though. The Kelce brothers have seen this from the way Taylor “gets engulfed” in creating every aspect of her music to make it an unforgettable experience. For Tom Cruise, that’s something he has tried to emulate in his own work.
“I’ve been watching her whole life as a musician and as an artist…and not afraid to go into other things, not afraid to direct stuff. You guys are like doing this, applying that kind of ability to other things. That to me, that’s life. The joy of creating,” Cruise said.
“And you look at it, it’s like, she’s a cook, a painter, a writer, a poet. And look at you, it’s like being able to take something and then create in it. I admire that. Like, when I see people, I’m always going around and looking at their skills and trying to understand that, and then I learn from it and how to reapply it.”
Going back to football, ever since Taylor and Travis started dating, she has been actively attending his home games, cheering him on alongside his family and her friends. In those early days, she didn’t know anything about football, and even once asked Travis what it was like seeing his brother opposite him on the field, playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. Trav then had to explain that with both of them being part of their team’s offenses, they never occupied the field at the same time.
But those are long behind them. Now, ever since Travis and Taylor tied the knot this July, that drive can only have gotten stronger as she’s now a permanent pillar of the football household.
As for Tom Cruise, he also made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon before the New Heights podcast dropped, and noted that Taylor was “schooling him” in football. In that interview, he also revealed he’d been away from the game for quite a while.
“She was bringing the football,” Cruise said on the show. “First of all, she’s a genius. I’ve been following her since she was a kid. Everybody there, all their friends, they’re a beautiful couple and magical in their own right. Everybody there in that booth.
“I hadn’t been to a football game since pre-COVID, where I was working and everything. So to get to hang out there and have that moment, it was a lot of fun. … She knows her stuff.”
Cruise couldn’t have chosen a better game to return to football, as the Chiefs demolished the Broncos 31-10 in that outing. As for Travis Kelce’s 14th NFL season, we can be sure to see Taylor Swift up in the suite with Donna Kelce and the rest, breaking down plays, calling out flags before the officials explain them, and approaching football just like she does her legendary music career.