“Super Bowl: Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce and the Rise of Sporting Power Couples”
This time what happens in Las Vegas demands popcorn, and is certainly not staying in Las Vegas.
Sin City hosts the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 11 (February 12, 5 am, IST). Contending for the trophy are Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
Unless you’ve been living under a giant lobster from one of Vegas’ ginormous buffet spreads, you’d know that the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce is dating pop superstar and walking singing economy Taylor Swift.
Much of the chatter around the Super Bowl is around the meteoric union of the two. More so because it’s election year in America, football is integral to conservative identity and Swift leans left.
As the excitement around the big game peaks, here’s a look at some power couples in sports.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce: In July 2023, Kelce attended a Swift concert. Interest piqued, he tried to give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. But Swift is so big even the NFL star couldn’t make much headway at first. A few days later Kelce was able to get an audience with Her Taylorness and invited her to his games. She accepted and watched the Chiefs from Kelce’s suite with his mother. The world has never been the same.
Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli: It’s been a decade of ‘Virushka’. The two met in 2013 while shooting for a shampoo commercial. Kohli was “nervous and jittery”, as he admitted in an interview. Sharma had clip-clopped on the set wearing heels, making her look taller than Kohli. “Didn’t you get a higher pair of heels?” Kohli said in an attempt to thaw ice. The joke didn’t land, causing the cricket legend some awkwardness. But then a bond developed and they got married in 2017.
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian: “You’re not afraid of rats?” were the romantic first words exchanged between the GOAT of women’s tennis and the Reddit co-founder. In 2015, they happened to sit on neighbouring tables in a Rome hotel. Williams’ assistant, in a ruse to save the table for the rest of their crew, tried to scare Ohanian by saying there was a bandicoot around. “I’m from Brooklyn, I see rats all the time,” Ohanian said. To which Williams responded with “You’re not afraid of rats?” The first meeting led to half-hearted testing of waters, and then full-blown connection and marriage.
Alyssa Healy and Mitchell Starc: They are a power couple in a sporty, laidback way and not necessarily the Met-Gala-and-net-worth way. Cricket brought the lefty yorker specialist and the Australian women’s captain together in childhood. As nine-year-olds, both were under the tutelage of Starc’s father Paul. Starc said he definitely “took a bit of a liking to the little blonde [wicket] keeper.” In 2016, after years of companionship, they got married. A few days ago, the two got into good-natured ribbing on air when Starc, as commentator, asked Healy about her teammates’ bowling lengths. In true baggy green spirit, Healy defended her players, letting her husband know he was perhaps being “ultra-critical.”