NFL star Travis Kelce said he is "learning every day" from Taylor Swift, as his new romance with the pop icon catapults him to heights of fame and scrutiny shared by few others on the planet.
"I've never been a man of words," the 34-year-old Kansas City Chiefs player told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday.
Now he is dating one of the most powerful songwriters in the industry, a woman described as a "literary giant" by a Shakespeare professor in an Australian newspaper.
"Being around her, seeing how smart Taylor, is," Kelce told the Journal, has been "mind-blowing. I'm learning every day."
That includes how she handles the intense pressures of celebrity. Kelce was famous before he met Swift - but the Journal dismisses that as "football famous."
Swift's fandom, meanwhile, sprawls over the globe and is staunchly loyal. Her social media followers number in the hundreds of millions, her Eras Tour is poised to become the first tour to make US$1bil, and political pundits discuss her potential influence in US elections.
Her appearance at two of Kelce's games saw television ratings spike and sales of his jersey soar 400%. Recent social media trends have seen Swift fans - so, everyone - pouring over Kelce's old tweets in delight.
"Obviously I've never dated anyone with that kind of aura about them... I've never dealt with it," Kelce told the Journal.
"But at the same time, I'm not running away from any of it," he said.
"The scrutiny she gets, how much she has a magnifying glass on her, every single day, paparazzi outside her house, outside every restaurant she goes to, after every flight she gets off, and she's just living, enjoying life. When she acts like that I better not be the one acting all strange." - AFP
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