It’s been over a week since Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement. Subsequently, we’ve had a really fun week of harmless TnT gossip, from Ed Kelce’s loose lips to the Swifties doing the work as they pieced together the details of the proposal. I am literally so impressed by the person who noticed that her engagement hair was matted as a result of wearing headphones to record New Heights. That is an attention to detail that I do not have. Anyway, it also seems like since the news broke, everyone has been willing to give a soundbite about the engagement. You know how they say you should live your life in a way that people won’t cheer when you die? This past week has been more like, “Live your life in a way that people are genuinely happy when you get engaged.”
Eli Manning, who was once part of another famous pair of NFL brothers, was recently asked about Taylor and Travis’ engagement. Eli has four children, Ava, 14, Lucy, 12, Caroline, 10, and Charlie, seven. His daughters are big TSwizzle fans, so he shared their reactions. In fact, the girls are such big Swifties that Eli once credited Tay Tay as being the reason that they finally started watching football.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement announcement last week had millions of fans cheering — and that included Eli Manning’s daughters.
“My three girls were very excited about it,” the retired NFL star tells PEOPLE exclusively of the pop superstar and Kansas City Chiefs tight end’s romantic garden proposal on Tuesday, Aug. 26. “Like, all of a sudden my phone just started ringing with FaceTimes and all of them texting and like, ‘Call me. Dad, call me.’ So they were very excited to tell me about the news yesterday.”
“They assumed they’re going to be invited to the wedding,” he added. “Just joking. They’re not going to be invited.”
Manning, 44, and his wife, Abby McGrew, share four children: Ava, 14, Lucy, 12, Caroline, 10, and son Charlie, 7.
“Happy for Travis and Taylor, and their engagement,” the New York Giants legend went on. “It’s been fun to watch their journey over the few years. And I’m sure the wedding will be fabulous.”
In 2023, the two-time Super Bowl winner told PEOPLE about his family’s reaction to seeing Swift at one of Kelce’s Chiefs games.
“It was fun. I’ve never convinced the three of my girls to sit down on a Sunday and watch a whole lot of football,” he said.
“But once they found out Taylor Swift was at the game, there were three girls glued to the TV just to watch it, trying to figure out who Travis Kelce was and what was going on,” he added. “So it was funny to see their reaction and how Taylor Swift being out at the football game drew their attention to watching football.”
It is too funny that Eli’s daughters were among those who got into football because of Taylor. Remember when Taylor started showing up at Kansas City Chief games and a bunch of male football fans grumbled about how she was invading their sacred man-spaces and taking over their TVs? Eli’s comments remind me of another subset of NFL fans that emerged at the time. There were so many fathers who were thrilled that their daughters were now also suddenly interested in watching football because it gave them an opportunity to bond. There was even a very sweet (albeit plagiarized) Super Bowl commercial about it. Eli retired in 2020, so his oldest would have been nine at the time. She grew up in a football family and absolutely had to have been taken to games. I love that not only were she and her sisters not forced to become fans, but that they were basically like, “Nah dad” until Taylor came along.
photos credit: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com/Avalon, Michael Simon/startraksphoto.com and via Instagram
Isn’t that picture of them at a hockey game? Too funny.
OMG that’s hilarious! But I’d choose hockey over football any day. The girls know what they like.
And this is why I think we’ll see the Chiefs in every Super Bowl until Travis Kelce retires or gets traded. The NFL is making gobs of money off of Taylor’s fans. The refs will do what they are told to do to get the Chiefs there every year. I don’t hate Taylor. I just hate capitalism.
I’ll always give Eli credit, as QB he beat Tom Brady and the Patriots twice in the Super Bowl. Two time SuperBowl MVP. Both times as an underdog. In my book he’s got bragging rights on his own even if his girls aren’t impressed.