For seemingly the first time in recent memory, a celebrity’s old social media posts have been resurfaced — and not because they were racist, sexist, antisemitic, homophobic or otherwise offensive.
This week, Taylor Swift fans dug up the old social media posts of Travis Kelce. But his musings on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, were widely shared and discussed because they were mundane streams of consciousness, which some found relatable, hilarious and even endearing.
Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs and two-time Super Bowl champion, “is experiencing the most positive possible version of the internet digging up your tweets from 2011,” wrote Alison Herman, a critic for Variety.
In one post from 2010 that now has over 11,000 likes on the platform, Kelce posted that he didn’t want to work, instead preferring to “sleep in my bed and do nothing with my life!!” In another post from 2011 that now has more than 25,000 likes, he described feeding bread to a “squirle” and how the animal “straight smashed all of it!!!! I had no idea they ate bread like that!! Haha #crazy.”
It’s not unusual for fans to resurface old celebrity social media posts. But for most whose posts have reappeared, it is usually because they were problematic. Chrissy Teigen, the model and cookbook author, had a reputation for being funny online, for instance. But in 2021, some of her posts from the 2010s were surfaced. In them, she repeatedly harassed Courtney Stodden, a model who was 16 at the time.
Older posts by Iggy Azalea and Kevin Hart have also gotten them into trouble. Azalea, an Australian rapper known for her song “Fancy,” pulled out of an appearance at Pittsburgh Pride in 2015 after her homophobic and racist posts from the early 2010s were surfaced. Hart, the comedian and actor, stepped down as the host of the 2019 Oscars after his homophobic posts from around 2011 surfaced.
Given that record, the Swifties were pleasantly surprised to find that Kelce’s old posts were largely silly.
In addition to the thoughts about squirrels and work, Kelce also posted in 2010 about how much he loved going to IHOP and ordering the steak and eggs for breakfast, to which one user responded: “such a good order king.”
He hated long lines at Chipotle, got excited for basketball games and enjoyed a good fettuccine Alfredo at the local Olive Garden from time to time.
One user wrote that his posts represented a simpler time on that platform: “travis kelce’s old tweets perfectly encapsulate what twitter once was,” they posted.
“Dudes expressing themselves without fear of judgement during study hall.”
Still, many fans found reasons to make fun of the football star. Many pointed out the spelling errors he made in the posts, while others compared Kelce’s unsophisticated posts to complex lyrics from the song “All Too Well” that Swift, a 12-time Grammy winner whose Eras Tour this year shattered concert records, released around the same time. “oh this himbo .. i love him,” one user replied to a post that included one such side-by-side.
“It’s very melodramatic, but it also has this weird comedic bent to it, that I don’t think he was doing on purpose,” said Bobbi Miller, a culture critic and the host of the pop culture podcast, “the Afternoon Special.”
Fans probably did so much sleuthing to begin with because of “the precedent of the last couple of people that Taylor has dated,” Miller said, referring in particular to Matty Healy, who has been criticized over past racist and sexist comments.
The memes and discussions around Kelce’s old posts are more evidence of the intrigue in the pair’s apparent budding relationship. Fans began speculating that the two were dating not long before Swift started to appear at a few of Kelce’s football games in September. The two have also made frequent appearances together, including on Saturday Night Live and at Swift’s Buenos Aires concert where she changed the lyrics of a song seemingly to reference him.
