HENDERSON, Nev. — Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was a big deal well before Taylor Swift came along.
He made the Pro Bowl in his third season, had his own reality dating show in his 20s and hosted ‘‘Saturday Night Live’’ last year after winning his second Super Bowl.
People knew him. But since he started dating Swift last year, everybody knows him. And he has learned a big lesson from stepping fully into celebrity over the last few months.
“That worldwide fame is a lot different than just being famous in Kansas City,” Kelce joked Tuesday.
He’s underselling himself — he has been a household name in the NFL for a decade and is headed for the Hall of Fame — but millions of Swifties and non-football fans have had their eye on him, wondering if he’ll be the one for their lovesick anti-hero.
Kelce has navigated this new world impressively. He always seems at ease with questions about Swift and the accompanying publicity that has engulfed the NFL, and he has been as good as ever on the field.
The Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five years, facing the 49ers on Sunday in Las Vegas, and, as usual, Kelce is one of the biggest reasons why.
He made his eighth consecutive Pro Bowl as the team’s leading receiver with 93 catches for 984 yards and five touchdowns. He caught three touchdown passes in the last two games to get the Chiefs here. Dominating never goes out of style.
He’s the same old Travis on the field, and that’s what he hoped everyone would see.
“Buckle up, baby,” he said of managing the swarm of attention. “I’ve juggled the perception of my focus. I never want to make the people in the Kansas City Chiefs’ building feel that I wasn’t focused on the task at hand, and that’s winning football games.
“Knowing how much I love this game and I love coming into work and everything . . . being able to make sure everybody knows my focus is in the right area, especially when I’m in the building, and there’s no distractions, that’s been the biggest thing.”
He seems to have made his point.
“He’s been the same guy,” wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling said. “He’s never let his outside stuff affect his play.
“It’s not like he just became a celebrity yesterday. He’s been the best tight end in the history of football for years. He has a personal relationship outside of football — that’s normal, just like everybody else. He’s just living his life.”
Normal? Hardly.
TV networks began cutting to Swift during games since she first visited Arrowhead Stadium in September to watch Kelce’s Chiefs crush the Bears 41-10.
After that, everyone waited eagerly to see if she showed up each week. Well, not everyone. But, like it or not, the love story has taken over the season and will be all over the broadcast Sunday.
Their relationship so thoroughly infiltrated the season that conspiracy theories about the NFL rigging it for the Chiefs to make the Super Bowl got loud enough for commissioner Roger Goodell to be asked about them this week.
“There’s no way I could’ve scripted that,” he said, laughing. He called the idea “nonsense.”
Whatever this is, whether a marketing stunt or an adventure in true love, it hasn’t slowed Kelce. He’s still lightning on his feet and one of the biggest stars in the league. He’d be a problem for the 49ers no matter whom he was dating.
If anything, it seems to be a positive for him. The attention might’ve ruined others, but he seems remarkably well-suited to handle it.
“It’s only given me energy,” he said. “I’m very fortunate to be in the position I am in life and have amazing things going for me. I’d be silly to find any negativity in what’s going on.”
