Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is engaged to pop sensation Taylor Swift, and he’s already served as inspiration for several songs she’s written since they started dating. However, it sounds like he still has a long way to go before he can truly be an expert on her music.
On a recent episode of his New Heights podcast, which he hosts alongside his older brother Jason, the Kelce brothers completely missed a rather blatant Taylor Swift reference. Ironically enough, the song referenced was written about Travis and even mentions the podcast.
Travis Kelce Reference
Swift has previously made some apparent references to her relationship with Kelce in her album The Tortured Poets Department. But on her latest release, The Life of a Showgirl, she turns the dial up even further, writing an entire song full of references to Kelce and a very specific part of his body.
The song, “Wood,” uses some cheeky wordplay to allude to a rather intimate body part belonging to the tight end.
“Redwood tree, it ain’t hard to see. His love was the key that opened my thighs,” Swift sings in the song.
“Girls, I don’t need to catch the bouquet to know a hard rock is on the way,” she sings in the following line.
Swift also references Kelce’s “magic wand” lifting a curse and sings about his “New heights of manhood,” a clear wink at the New Heights podcast.
Kelce Misses the Reference
Despite the song’s obvious ties to Travis—complete with mentions of his “Redwood tree” and even his podcast—both Kelce brothers failed to catch a listener’s reference to the track during an episode of *New Heights*.
During the “New News” segment of the Jan. 21 episode of the podcast, Jason appeared genuinely baffled while reading a fan’s merch suggestion.
“‘I can’t believe none of the hoodies are called ‘New Heights of Man-Hoodie,’’” Jason read. “I don’t know what the [expletive] that means, but she’s disappointed.”
“What’s that mean? What’s a ‘man-hoodie?’ Is that a thing?” Jason asked.
Travis was just as lost, despite the joke being rooted in a song written about him and his manhood. Eventually, the podcast’s producer had to step in and spell it out.
“It’s a Life of a Showgirl reference, boys, come on,” Brandon, the show’s producer, explained. “The lyric, ‘New Heights of manhood,’ it’s the time we were referenced in the album.”
Needless to say, the reference flew completely over their heads.
“I didn’t understand that,” Travis admitted. “Taylor’s going to kill me for not knowing that.”
“We’re not as good with the Easter eggs as these Swifties,” Jason said.
“They sure know how to plant them and call them out,” Travis added.
Fans Offer Reactions
Needless to say, this mistake from Travis and his brother led to a lot of reactions from fans on social media.
“She wrote one of her worst songs in that track (for HIM), and this is how he commemorates it? I don’t even like Wood, but he can at least not embarrass himself with his indifference. What a grifter he is,” someone else wrote.
“He’s either too embarrassingly stupid to be real or he just doesn’t listen to her lyrics at all. I hate both answers. She wrote the [worst], hammiest, dumbest song praising him and he didn’t even get the obvious joke,” another fan added.
“New heights of dumbness or whatever she said,” someone else added.
“Oh my god he doesn’t even know the song. oh my god. This is worse than him not knowing Red. This is so embarrassing. Taylor, get your standards off the floor. This man doesn’t respect your work in the slightest,” another fan wrote.
“Taylor get OUT of there,” someone else pleaded.
Obviously, fans are not happy with Kelce’s mistake.
About Dave Kelsey
Bets on sports stuff.