This editorial board has been known to discuss things loudly, and there was some debate Tuesday afternoon about whether the editorial you are reading should be written. After all, with the threat of military intervention on the streets of Chicago, President Donald Trump’s legally questionable firing of a Federal Reserve official and any number of other dystopian matters to concern us these dog days of summer, the nuptials of a pop star and a football player might seem superfluous.
But as the names Taylor and Travis floated through the newsroom air, not only did heads turn, but previously serious journalistic visages gave way to big smiles. Thus, the case was made.
When Taylor Swift first agreed to be interviewed, quite extensively, it turned out, on her boyfriend and his brother’s podcast, we wondered what was up, big fat ring-wise. But there was no revelation of a change in relationship status. Taylor Swift did not get to be Taylor Swift without her exquisite sense of how to be approachable and relatable, but also sufficiently private so as to make it impossible to credibly accuse her of exploiting her own life.
Her sense of these things is truly masterful: Her fans, she surely intuited, would be as delighted by this news as by the engagement of a beloved best friend, but they also would not want to broadcast their own most personal moments. Had Kelce popped the question on the air, the couple would have “othered” themselves.
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Not in the Swift-Kelce playbook. Instagram would, of course, play a role, but it would have to wait.
Only the irretrievably cynical and unpleasant could wish these two anything but the best. The all-American singer-songwriter of epic talent who understands what is expected of a pop star and behaves accordingly, and who has taken tending to fans to a whole other level of customer service, meets the goofy, genial tight end of the Kansas City Chiefs, a competitor seemingly fierce and self-confident enough to stand up to Tay-Tay and all she represents, but also nurturing, supportive and, dare we say, gentle. Or so we all hope.
We know a couple of men who are married to powerful female celebrities. One makes himself scarce when she is working. Another laments that they will etch “Here Lies the Plus One” on his tombstone. Kelce, it seems, will be present on Swift’s arm, grinning and caring all the way: Taylor times two.
(Excepting any singing.)
We’re sure that those close to Kelce have made him aware that, should things go south, he’ll have millions of Swifties to whom he will have to answer, even though they might not have the full information, but that’s not something to worry about at one of the life’s happiest moments.
Not every celebrity couple gets to do things on their own terms quite like these guys. We have etched in our minds an interview Marilyn Monroe gave standing next to Arthur Miller in front of a battery of cameras and leering pressmen, after the couple announced their marriage in 1956. Perhaps the most famous couple in the world back then, they were like hunted quarry. They seemed both engaged and miserable, albeit in love.
We think Swift and Kelce are well equipped to avoid all of that. Swift’s authenticity has given her power; it’s striking to see Meghan Markle, an exile from the British royal family, striving for even a smidgeon of that quality in her critically maligned new Netflix series, but it’s not something easily created on television, with others guiding the narrative.
Swift is her own director and producer. She’s not a reality show but reality itself. The engagement of a pop star and a football player seems well timed for the end of summer, cruel or otherwise, with the coming of cooler nights and a return to the bleachers.
“For whatever it’s worth,” Swift sings, self-deprecatingly, in one of her biggest hits, “I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?”
Kelce apparently said no, it’s not.
We say it’s one of the best things we’ve heard all week.
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