Ever since the "Cruel Summer" singer accepted an invitation to watch Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce play the Chicago Bears on September 24, everyone from Swifties to football fans have been glued to the pair's every move.
From the outside, it reads like the start of a high-school romance.
After the football star had a missed connection with Swift at one of her concerts in July, he invited her to watch him play at the same venue, Arrowhead Stadium. She then showed up in her private suite, decked in a red-and-white Chiefs jacket, to enthusiastically cheer him on alongside her mom. The Kansas City team delivered on putting on a show for her, demolishing the Bears 41-10. The pair were subsequently snapped walking out of the stadium together and looking cozy at an after-party.
Many of Swift's fans are already all-in on the romance, believing wholeheartedly (and maybe naively) that their idol of her would never deceive them. Others, including "The View" host Sara Haines, believe Kelce and Swift's pairing is an elaborate "publicity stunt" full of staged moments, right down to shots of Kelce and Swift seen in what appeared to be a "getaway car," perhaps a reference to a popular Swift song.
"PR relationships have been going on since the beginning of Hollywood," Emma Telesca, a senior publicist at Anderson Group Public Relations, told Insider. "I will say the Taylor Swift effect is on another level."
In recent years, many have speculated famous couples like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries were orchestrated, but Telesca and other experts don't think that's what's going on here.
"They obviously enjoy each other's company," Telesca said of Kelce and Swift. "They were at an after-party together. It's not like they just got a pap shot and left."