Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes impressed by Taylor Swift’s work ethic, business acumen

As the best player on the championship team in the biggest sports league in the country, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has rubbed elbows with many famous people.

Heck, Mahomes just met soccer legend Lionel Messi on Saturday before Sporting Kansas City’s match against Inter Miami CF.

In an interview with Time’s Sean Gregory for the magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people, Mahomes talked about another megastar: Taylor Swift.

Swift is dating Travis Kelce, who is one of Mahomes’ closest friends. And Swift helped raise the profile not only of Kelce, but the Chiefs, when she started attending games in September.

“I’ve met a lot of famous people now in my life,” Mahomes said in the Time interview. “Taylor’s probably the most down-to-earth person that’s been on that stage for that long.”

That easy-going manner could be what appealed to Mahomes’ wife, Brittany. As Gregory noted, the two have become friends.

Mahomes, who has his own production company and owns Whataburger franchises around Kansas City, has been impressed with Swift’s work ethic and business acumen. Swift may be a billionaire who sells out huge concert venues around the world, but Mahomes said she’s always pushing to do more.

And that apparently carries over to discussions about the Chiefs.

“She’s never not working,” Mahomes told Time. “Even when she’s taking her downtime, she’s working on something. Shooting a music video or singing a song or writing a song. You can see it by how she talks. Even when she’s talking about football, when she’s learning it, you can see her business mind putting it together. It’s almost like she’s trying to become a coach. ‘Why can’t you try this, this, and this?’ She’s asking the right questions.”

Swift’s popularity helped put the Chiefs in a new orbit, Mahomes acknowledged in the interview.

The Chiefs “went from a nationwide team that was kind of global to a full global worldwide team,” Mahomes said. “That came from Taylor’s fanbase.”