Travis Kelce has seemingly shared his approval of his and Taylor Swift’s “ship name.” On Saturday, December 23, the Kansas City Chiefs dropped a signed, custom jersey on their Chiefs Bids fan auction website. (Chiefs Bids is an online auction platform, run by the NFL team, for fans to bid on gear that has been worn or autographed by athletes.)
Kelce, 34, signed his #87 jersey for Chiefs Bids with a brief change. Instead of his last name on the back, it featured the word, “Swelce.” The term has since become the unofficial fan nickname for Kelce’s relationship with Swift, 34, as it is a combination of their two last names. The custom pinny was ultimately sold for more than $500 to a lucky fan.
Kelce, a tight end for the Chiefs since 2013, started dating Swift this summer. “This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” the Grammy winner told TIME in her Person of the Year cover story earlier this month.
In July, Kelce revealed on his “New Heights” that he was “butthurt” that he couldn’t meet Swift after he saw her Eras Tour concert in Kansas City — especially after he made a DIY friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. After someone in Swift’s inner circle sent her Kelce’s podcast, she reached out.
“We actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other,” Swift added to TIME. “By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”
Swift went to her first football game in September, watching the Chiefs play the Chicago Bears at KC’s Arrowhead Stadium. She sat in Kelce’s private box, clad in team merch, next to his mother. Swift has since attended several more of his NFL games.
“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Swift noted in her TIME profile. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
Swift and Kelce’s romance has continued heating up, leading to candid discussions about their relationship progression. “They’ve had plenty of really deep conversations about their future together,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month. “When they can’t physically be together, they are constantly texting, calling, and FaceTiming. Taylor’s relationship with Travis is like nothing she’s ever experienced before. They got serious fairly quickly and she was proud to show off their relationship from the jump.”
