Week 14 of the 2024 NFL season brought us a “Sunday Night Football” match between Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs against their AFC West rival, the Los Angeles Chargers, at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Kelce’s girlfriend, singer Taylor Swift, had been present for the Chiefs’ previous game against the Las Vegas Raiders. However, she was absent on Sunday night as she was performing the last concert of her “Eras Tour” in Vancouver, Canada.
With Swift not in attendance, Kelce was still able to, once again, make some history.
Coming into the game, Kelce had recorded 11,965 receiving yards during his 12-year NFL career. At around 10:25 p.m. ET, with 1:59 remaining in the third quarter, the star recorded his fourth catch of the night, which went for seven yards.
In doing so, Kelce became the fastest tight end in league history to record 12,000 career receiving yards.
“Travis Kelce is the fastest TE in NFL History (172 games) to reach 12,000 career receiving yards,” the NFL wrote on X.
Roughly 30 minutes after Kelce’s big catch, Swift took the stage for the final time of her iconic tour, the beginning of the end of the highest-grossing tour in music history.
Social media posts started pouring in at 10:55 p.m. ET, announcing that Swift had officially greeted fans from inside Vancouver’s BC Place, home of the Vancouver
Whitecaps FC, for the first time of the night.
According to Pollstar, the “Eras Tour” had already become the first tour to surpass the $1 billion mark in gross revenue at the end of 2023. It was also estimated that Swift earned over $2 billion, including shows in 2024. In comparison, the second-highest-grossing tour, Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour,” earned $939 million.
This isn’t the first time Kelce broke a record during the 2024 season. Against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 9, the tight end became the oldest player in NFL history to record 14 or more catches in a single game. In the 30-24 overtime win, Kelce tallied 14 catches for a season-high 100 yards.
Kelce hasn’t necessarily had the best statistical season of his 12-year career. After Week 14, the tight end had recorded 80 catches for 682 yards and two scores, on track for his worst performance since 2015.
The Chiefs pulled off a last-second 19-17 win after a walk-off field goal. Kelce notably made the final catch of the night, giving Kansas City a first down and allowing it to waste the remainder of the clock.
With the win, the Chiefs remain atop the AFC standings at 12-1, ahead of the second-placed Buffalo Bills, who lost to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday afternoon.
