It's the year 2023, and Bill Belichick has publicly mentioned Taylor Swift twice in the last 35 days.
In late August, the New England Patriots head coach admitted he caught Swift's "Eras Tour" performance at Gillette Stadium earlier in the summer and called the pop superstar "tough" for playing through a drenching rain in Foxboro.
Earlier this week, Belichick surprised everyone by actually responding to a question about Swift's apparent budding romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
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"Well, I would say that Travis Kelce has had a lot of big catches in his career. This would be the biggest," Belichick said Monday on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show."
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If you did a double take hearing Belichick discuss anything other than the Patriots' upcoming opponent or special teams, imagine how Kelce felt when Bill made a joke about his dating life.
The Chiefs tight end shared his reaction to Belichick's comments on Wednesday's episode of the "New Heights" podcast with his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce.
"Everyone's talking about it. Everyone. Even Bill Belichick," Travis told Jason about Swift showing up in Kansas City to watch Kelce's Chiefs on Sunday. "He hasn't talked much about me outside of game weeks that we've played, but he made sure to remind me that's the best catch I've ever had in my life."
"That was a great line by Bill," Jason added, to which Travis responded, "Hilarious."
There's probably a twinge of sarcasm from Travis Kelce there; the Patriots aren't exactly his favorite team after their battles late in the Belichick-Tom Brady era, including New England's overtime win over Kelce's Chiefs in the 2018 AFC Championship Game.
Still, any publicity is good publicity, and Kelce seemed to appreciate getting it from an unexpected source in Belichick.
"Shout-out to Bill, man," Kelce added.