Travis Kelce Is All Good with Taylor Swift’s Security Team, “Blacked Out” on Saturday Night Live | Vanity Fair

By Kase Wickman

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift had some big adventures over the weekend, with Kelce prompting some to speculate whether he’s looking for a side hustle as a bodyguard on top of his tight end duties with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Fans haven’t missed Kelce’s chivalrous behavior with Swift, poring over footage of the duo on the streets of New York City, where Kelce appeared to step in front of one of Swift’s security guards to usher her into a waiting car. For someone who has sparked years of rumors about whether she once left her own apartment zipped inside an enormous suitcase to avoid unwanted public attention, recruiting a 6-foot-five NFL player to run interference and provide good conversation almost feels quaint.

Keeping to his previous word that he’d keep his personal life mostly personal, Travis joked about the footage of his date night with Swift on Wednesday’s episode of New Heights, the podcast he co-hosts with brother Jason Kelce.

When Jason asked if Swift’s security had a problem with Travis “pushing them out of the way,” Travis insisted, “I didn’t push them. I placed my hand on the gentleman’s back to let him know I was behind him. If I would have pushed him he probably would have turned around and Tased me.”

As he described it, the vibe was, “Good sir, can you excuse me, I need to get the door, sorry. Thank you. I’m right behind you. I don’t want to startle you, I know it’s your job to keep crazy people away. And if you just randomly get pushed in the back while standing in front of a door, that could probably be a little alarming.”

He described Swift’s security team as “great, they’re good people,” and said that his behavior with Swift was no different than anyone he’d take on a date.

“Whenever I’m on a date I feel like, I’m always having the sense of, I’m a man in this situation, I’m protective, yeah, sure,” he said. “You always have that kind of feeling, that self-awareness, I guess. … You’ve just gotta know where the exits are.”

He also addressed the dual surprise cameos he and Swift made on the week’s episode of Saturday Night Live, which was apparently a spur-of-the-moment thing that even the SNL staff—including the show’s legendary creator and maestro, Lorne Michaels—didn’t know about beforehand.

According to Travis, “We showed up at SNL having the idea of going to support Ice Spice, her and Taylor are good friends.”

He called the sketch he cameoed on “hilarious” and said it was a coincidence that there were references to Swift’s newfound zeal for football planned for the show already, and said the studio was “electric.”

“I blacked out,” he said of the audience reaction to his cameo. “As soon as they cued to me, the entire place erupted, which was very overwhelming and I’m not even sure if I said anything. I walked off, I said I didn’t say anything at all. They said yeah, you killed it, and I watched it over and I still don’t know if I really said what I was supposed to.”

“I had such a freaking blast, man,” he said. “It was a star-studded back room. I’m not the one to throw around names, so I won’t, but it was awesome.”