Howard Stern thinks Travis Kelce “has to” marry girlfriend Taylor Swift for his career, but Stephen A. Smith made it clear that he thinks the NFL star has a bright future regardless.
“First of all, Travis Kelce has to marry Taylor Swift, right?” Stern, 70, said during the Tuesday, January 23, episode of SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show. “He will then get a movie career. He’ll be bigger than The Rock. I mean, this is it. This is his chance.”
Smith, 56, quickly corrected Stern, noting that Kelce, 34, is set to have a big career after his retirement based on his own talents. “He is a two-time Super Bowl champion. He’s on the verge of potentially being a three-time super bowl champion,” he explained. “He’s universally recognized as one of the greatest tight ends in the history of football. [He’s] a good looking dude. Got style, got flair, got skills. He’s got a future in this business [broadcasting] once he retires from football, I’m here to tell you that.”
The sports broadcaster went on to call Kelce “the total package” who is also known throughout his industry as “a really, really good dude.”
Smith made it clear that he was pointing out Kelce’s merits, but he certainly doesn’t have a problem with Swift, who started dating the athlete over the summer. The ESPN personality even recently became a Swiftie more than a month before the superstar began attending Kansas City Chiefs games.
“Don’t get me wrong. Taylor Swift is a good-looking woman. She’s an incredible artist. I went to her concert with my daughter,” Smith said.
Stern was shocked that Smith was at The Eras Tour. “Man, Howard, it was off the chain. I loved it. I couldn’t believe how much I loved it,” he marveled. “I don’t listen to Taylor Swift’s music — until that day! She was phenomenal. I went to SoFi stadium in L.A..”
He attended alongside his daughters, Samantha and Nyla, who are in their early teens.
“I saw Taylor Swift receive a nine-minute standing ovation in between songs. They wouldn’t let her — these little girls, they know every song. They know every lyric of every song. Black, white, latina, asian, everything! It was a mosaic. I saw everything. And I’m telling you right now, no one was sitting down,” he said.
He added: “Howard, are you ready for this? I’m 56 years old. I stood up for three-and-a-half hours. I never sat down. I didn’t sit down for three-and-a-half hours.”
Smith previously came to Swift’s defense as “dads, Brads and Chads” complained about Swift’s support of Kelce taking up time from the broadcast
“I have to take a moment to come to the defense of Taylor Swift,” he said earlier this month during an episode of Mad Dog’s A-List segment on ESPN. “Everybody’s sitting up there and acting like she’s some kind of impediment.”
He continued, “Excuse me? She did her job. That Eras Tour — off the chain, generated billions. She’s going to support her dude. To show up at a football game and the cameras are on her — that ain’t her fault! And excuse me, by the way, she went to the games after the concerts. It’s not like she used the games to bump up the concerts.”
According to Smith, critics are too focused on trying to find a reason to dislike Swift.
“Those kids were going to her concerts whether the NFL was promoting her or not! Taylor Swift is that girl. Let’s show some respect,” he concluded. “She probably is gonna have a positive on Travis Kelce’s performance, OK? I’m not trying to disrespect Taylor Swift.”
For her part, Swift has said she ignores the haters. “I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in. There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once,” she said in her December 2023 TIME Person of the Year profile. “I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads and Chads.”
