Jason Kelce was always going to make it big after football. When the former Philadelphia Eagles center began the New Heights podcast with his brother, Travis Kelce, in 2022, he brought an energy to everyone’s screens that has remained unmatched even now. But he never realized just how prominent and relevant he’d be after hanging up his cleats in 2023. One of the biggest things that helped him in that regard was the relationship between Travis and Taylor Swift that bloomed around the time Jason was contemplating retirement.

On The SZN with Nick Foles & Evan Moore, Jason was asked if he ever saw himself having such a prominent media career after his retirement. Jason outlined that entire journey and added how Travis’ dating life helped things along.

“It clearly came on fast in terms of the role in media,” Kelce said. “I filmed a documentary my second to last year with my wife, and a lot of that was – I knew retirement was looming and I was trying to tell a story of how difficult it is for a lot of guys to transition and what that process is like, and kind of go through it organically because it was something that I didn’t know what was going to be like. I think the media thing, we started the podcast obviously my last couple years playing, and that took off, and then obviously Travis’ dating life and everything kind of blew up and then a lot of media opportunities were there, and when you get done playing the game you only have so many things you can do to stay involved with it.

“You built up this knowledge playing the sport for so long, really you either coach or you go into media or you’re kind of done with the sport like it’s just the way it is. And I didn’t know the opportunities going to be there especially as a center to be on Monday Night Countdown, or to have a podcast with my brother and doing great and successful and all that stuff, and I think it just kind of naturally started progressing as it was going along.”

Here’s where things overlap between the brothers: before Jason’s final NFL season began, Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, had already tried to woo Taylor. A journey that began with Travis making a friendship bracelet for her in July 2023 – and then talking about not being able to give it to her on their podcast – brought the Kelce brothers the attention of Taylor’s musical fanbase. By September, rumors of the two dating had already spread like wildfire, with both brothers being asked about it at every turn.

Right around this time, on September 11, Jason’s documentary Kelce was released on Amazon Prime. But this wasn’t being watched by just football fans anymore – the Swifties had joined in. In just one day, Kelce became the platform’s most-watched documentary in the United States. One doesn’t have to imagine the kind of shared spotlight Jason got when Taylor Swift showed up at a Chiefs game, in Travis’ suite with his mother on September 24th, 2023.

When Jason announced his retirement in March 2024, he got the opportunity to join ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, a position he still holds to this day. As for their New Heights podcast, by November, it was the 8th most popular podcast on Apple Podcasts. By the end of that year, it already had 2.5 million subscribers, a figure that has since ballooned to 3.1M subscribers on YouTube.

Cut to August 13th, 2025, and Taylor helped the brothers get a Guinness World Record. When he announced her 12th studio album – The Life of a Showgirl – on New Heights, 1.3 million people watched it concurrently. 10 million views in 24 hours, and that episode remains their most-watched to date. Per Spotify, the podcast got a 3,000% increase in new listeners, with the female audience number rising by 618%. That’s the Taylor Swift effect, playing out in real time for the Kelce brothers.

This July, appearing on the Ross Tucker Podcast, Jason Kelce revealed that he now has to travel with a bodyguard because of the fame and public prominence being associated with Taylor Swift has brought him.

“It was definitely gradual, and then it just was a very big flip obviously when Taylor and Travis started dating, and that led to a whole another demographic and fanbase being interested in not just me but our entire family,” Kelce told Tucker. “And I went from very much being dominated by large fat men coming up to me and shaking my hand and thanking me for being an Eagle to little girls. It was quite a shift of people that became fans.”

This fanbase now follows the family the same way it used to follow Taylor Swift. With Travis and Taylor officially tying the knot this July, the fanbase has gotten even bigger. Now, none of this takes anything away from the brilliant on-screen presence that is Jason Kelce. But you have to admit, being related to the biggest pop star with 14 Grammys to her name does have its perks.