Travis Kelce Credit: The Pat McAfee Show
By Brendon Kleen on

Travis Kelce has handled the newfound attention he brought on himself this NFL season — as the host of one of the biggest sports podcasts on Earth, owner of the most endorsement deals in football, and one half of the most famous celebrity couple in America — surprisingly well. And with his Kansas City Chiefs back in the Super Bowl, Kelce is soaking in the media’s 180 toward his relationship once again.

In an interview on Wednesday on The Pat McAfee Show, Kelce explained how he handled paparazzi attention, media scrutiny and public beef throughout the season. He also pushed back on the hypocrisy coming from many corners of the media and fanbases now that he has had a bounce-back postseason for the Chiefs.

“It’s exciting for me, but it was all brand new,” Kelce admitted. “I couldn’t tell you, from having the paparazzi follow me every single day into work, everybody having my name on their talk show every single day whether it’s sports, whether it’s not sports. It’s been a crazy, crazy ride I could have never anticipated it, but I’m having fun with it, the majority of the world is having fun with it outside of all the cranky NFL fans that just don’t want to see us win. We’re slowly reeling them in, but they’re fighting it right now.”

While everyone from Aaron Rodgers to right-wing politicians to even many NFL analysts and media took aim at Kelce or Swift throughout the season, Kelce has no hard feelings now that they are (mostly) coming crawling back as the Chiefs dynasty marches on.

“It’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?” Kelce chuckled. “Hopefully, everybody realizes we’re two people in a relationship supporting each other and having fun with it. It’s nothing more than that. However, the world wants to paint a picture and make us the enemy; we have fun with it, and we enjoy every single bit of it.”

However, in true celebrity fashion, Kelce also noted that he and Swift don’t hear the criticism. If that’s true, they would be the only two people on Earth who haven’t.

Kelce’s management team wants to turn Kelce into a modern-day Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and he is already more famous than most quarterbacks. So it’s good that the star tight end is getting used to the noise because it won’t stop anytime soon.

[The Pat McAfee Show on YouTube]

About Brendon Kleen

Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.

View all posts by Brendon Kleen