As Taylor Swift’s song “The Best Day” concludes:
“I didn’t know if you knew,
So I’m taking this chance to say,
That I had the best day with you today.”
The eyes of the entire world were on Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift as the two celebrated the Kansas City Chiefs’ second consecutive Super Bowl championship with a 25-22 win over the San Francisco 49ers.
Although the couple, which has become the talk of the NFL season, likely didn’t spend any time together on Sunday prior to the game’s finish, the final few hours of Feb. 11, 2024, will create enough memories for the two to remember for the rest of their lives.
In one of the most thrilling finishes in Super Bowl history, Patrick Mahomes, Kelce and the Chiefs marched down the field in overtime to secure the victory. The game-winning touchdown came after the 49ers were only able to muster a field goal in the first possession of the overtime period.
San Francisco jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, but counting Mahomes and the Chiefs out is the last thing anyone should’ve thought to do, especially in the Super Bowl, a game Kansas City has been to in four of the last five seasons.
Before the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Chiefs were able to get on top by three points. Then, a field goal fest ensued.
San Francisco’s Jake Moody and Kansas City’s Harrison Butker traded kicks in the fourth quarter, with Butker connecting on a 29-yarder to send the game into overtime.
For the first time in NFL history, the overtime period looked different. It was the first game with the NFL’s new overtime rules in the playoffs.
In 2022, the NFL decided to allow both teams to possess the ball in overtime. (A novel concept, if I might add.)
Prior to the rule change, if the team that possessed the ball first in overtime scored a touchdown on their first drive, the game was over. It was a rule that the Chiefs benefitted from in 2022, but the rule change didn’t affect Kansas City on Sunday.
Both teams put together long, seven-plus-minute drives of 13 plays, but the difference came in the red zone, where the 49ers settled for another Moody field goal and where the Chiefs scored the game-winning touchdown.
Cameramen and media members poured onto the field in hopes of getting in position for one shot: the celebratory embrace between Kelce and Swift.
Of course, shots of Mahomes and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid would do well, too, but the world was focused on two people. One couple.
Swift, who performed a concert in Tokyo less than 48 hours prior to the Super Bowl, took a flight halfway around the world to be in Las Vegas to support Kelce. Like she had been for numerous games throughout the season, Swift enjoyed the game from her suite and rushed down to the field after the victory.
As expected, the two did meet on the field, and they shared a passionate embrace.
The Super Bowl victory marked a perfect ending to the Chiefs’ historic season, but one thing it didn’t cap off was the budding relationship between Kelce and Swift. With the cameras turned off for about the next six months, the couple will get a chance to grow in their relationship together without the pressure of hundreds of millions of eyes on them.
Kelce and Swift are almost certainly the most popular couple in the world today, and the duo is approaching all-time levels of fame and prominence.
However, it’s unlikely that Kelce and Swift will surpass one couple, and it’s ironically one that Swift’s 2008 hit “Love Story” is centered around.
Romeo and Juliet, although fictional, are undoubtedly the most famous couple of all time.
But as things hang in the balance between Kelce and Swift — the tight end didn’t propose after the game, as many suspected he might, and the future of their relationship is still to be determined — they do have one advantage over Romeo and Juliet.
Kelce and Swift still have an opportunity at a happily-ever-after ending. The jury is still out as to whether the tight-end and ultra-famous pop star will, in fact, live happily ever after, but they do have a building block for their future relationship — one that they will remember forever:
“The Best Day.”