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Taylor Swift had an epic 34th birthday party on December 13. The “Love Song” singer celebrated her big day in New York with famous friends like Blake Lively, Miles Teller, Keleigh Sperry, Zoe Kravitz, and Gigi Hadid, but her new boyfriend, Travis Kelce, was noticeably absent. But it turns out he has a pretty good excuse.
Kelce is the tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, and considering they get paid millions of dollars a year, skipping practice for your girlfriend’s party isn’t a good excuse, even if it’s Swift.
He had to stay in Kansas City for the mandatory practice ahead of their game against the New England Patriots this upcoming Sunday. The team is currently on a two day losing streak.
A source told Entertainment Tonight, he “remains committed to playing his best and doing his best on and off the field. The team practices are critical, mandatory to attend, and something he takes very seriously. So, it’s no surprise he stayed in Kansas City ahead of this weekend’s game.”
What seems like a reasonable excuse has reportedly angered some Swifties. Other fans expected him to fly to New York right after practice ended.
Just because Kelce wasn’t at the birthday, doesn’t mean they didn’t celebrate. The couple celebrated her birthday early with friends on Sunday after his game against the Buffalo Bills, which they lost.
They joined the team and friends for a party at a holiday pop-up bar in Kansas City later that night, per PEOPLE. They looked like they had a sweet time in photos with adorable PDA.
The 34-year-old singer recently talked about her relationship with Kelce, during an interview with TIME following her recognition of Person of the Year. “This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” she said, explaining that they “started hanging out right after that.”
She also revealed that they were already together when she went to his game in September for the first time. “We actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for because we got to get to know each other,“ she said. ”I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? ... We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”