The Tight End University [TEU] initiative was started by George Kittle, Travis Kelce, and Greg Olsen in 2021 to bring the NFL’s best together to train, mentor, and help build a community. Last season, Taylor Swift, one of the biggest superstars in the world and fiancée of Kelce, performed at the Tight Ends and Friends music event, which was a surprise for everyone.

TEU is back this year again with the annual event, and although Swift has not confirmed her availability, the attendance signups for this year’s event are at an unprecedented level, as confirmed by Kittle.

“I don’t know if last year Taylor Swift singing a surprise song had anything to do with this,” Kittle told Rich Eisen. “This year, when we sent out the invite sheet, we had 30 people signed up in the first two days.”

Those signup numbers represented a significant jump from what Kittle and the rest of TEU’s organizers are used to. Kittle explained to Eisen that in previous years, when the event took place, there were about seven to twelve signups before June 1st. But this time around, the estimated attendance had already surpassed 80 signups by the start of June.

Kittle alluded to Swift’s presence at last year’s event as a potential motivation factor for players’ wives to attend.

“Out of the 30 people, 29 of them were bringing their significant other,” Kittle said. “I don’t know if they were [partners] influencing them, influencing their husbands to sign up early”

Swift’s appearance at TEU last year led to a surprise impromptu performance of her classic hit “Shake It Off” at the end of the event’s Tight Ends & Friends concert. This brought the attention of TEU to a whole new mainstream audience and skyrocketed its profile to another level.

Kittle, on his part, seems to be thrilled that his once small-scale football-focused event has blown up to such a degree.

“This is the best attendance I think we’ll ever have,” Kittle said.

The record turnout is another sign of how much Tight End University has evolved since its inception.

TEU continues to grow beyond its football roots

When Rich Eisen remarked that TEU had once been little more than “an idea and a dream,” Kittle agreed. The annual football camp/lab was designed to give tight ends in the league an avenue to hone and work on their craft away from their respective teams’ training regimen. It also served as a platform where tight ends could network and form an extended brotherhood.

“Tight Ends and Friends is everything TEU stands for: the brotherhood, the celebration, the fans, and the moments that nobody sees coming. What we built last year in Nashville was something truly special, and this summer we are taking it to another level entirely,” Olsen said about TEU’s growth in a statement.

With TEU becoming a signature event in the offseason calendar, and this year’s event particularly blowing up in size, fans can now take part in the festivities by buying tickets to see on-field training sessions and also take part in events, including giveaways. The event will also feature the involvement of Will Compton and Taylor Lewan’s Bussin’ With The Boys podcast. They’ll be doing a series of interviews with the players on location.

“Vanderbilt University is letting us use their actual stadium for everything, and we’re going to open the doors to the public so people can come watch. They can get interviewed by Will and Taylor Lewan from Bussin With the Boys. They’re gonna be out there with microphones interviewing people, providing some entertainment, and we’re excited about them. We’re hosting another country concert, and I think we have 10 artists showing up. It’s going to be an absolute banger,”  Kittle said. “We’ve tripled the size of the venue that we do the concert at. We’ll have over 3,000 people in there.”

While Swift’s presence at last year’s event most certainly played a huge role in raising the profile and popularity of TEU to a whole new level, Kittle, Kelce, and Olsen should be incredibly proud of creating an annual event that will impact the position and the game at large for decades to come.