Taylor Swift surprises with performance at Tight End University as she supports Travis Kelce
Taylor Swift has won numerous awards, but she probably deserves one for most supportive girlfriend of a football player.
The pop star thrilled folks with a recent surprise performance in Nashville, where Tight End University is taking place.
Swift's beau, Kansas City Chiefs football player Travis Kelcie, was at the annual event that brings together the best tight ends in the National Football League to train and hang out. Social media posts that captured Swift performing her hit 'Shake It Off' at the 'Tight Ends & Friends' concert.
The NFL even posted a photo country star Kane Brown had shared of him with Swift and Kelce, writing, 'When you think you're the special guest BUT you're not' with a laughing emoji.
She popped out during Brown's set to the delight of the attendees.
'Shake It Off' feels like the perfect song choice for the tight ends, who sometimes need to do just that while playing, and Swift appeared to get that.
'We would like to dedicate this to our favorite players who are going to play and these are the tight ends,' she said before launching into her hit as the crowd cheered.
Swift and Kelce have been going strong as a couple since the summer of 2023.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
34 minutes ago
- New York Times
How do Pacers recover from Tyrese Haliburton's injury?
Kyrie Irving will sign a new contract to keep him in Dallas for the long haul, while, as many expected, Boston is parting ways with two key core players. Follow along for the latest. Getty Images That the Indiana Pacers lost the title to Oklahoma City on Sunday almost felt secondary when compared to the injury to their franchise player. Tyrese Haliburton suffered an Achilles tendon injury, according to his father, John, as relayed by the ESPN broadcast. The injury is to the same leg he'd suffered a strained calf muscle just a few days earlier. Assuming that's correct, Tyrese would likely miss all of the 2025-26 season. It threw what had been a brilliantly executed piece of short- and long-term roster construction into chaos. How can the Pacers overcome this? In the short term, it seems impossible. The Pacers had been set up for a two- or three-year window with their core group, while many of their potential opponents in the East faced either significant injuries to key players or, in the case of the New York Knicks, the fallout from players after firing a popular coach. Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, sixth-man extraordinaire T.J. McConnell and reserve forward Obi Toppin are all signed through the 2027-28 season. (McConnell has a partial guarantee of $5 million in the final year of his deal.) Forward Aaron Nesmith is signed through 2027. Fourth-year forward Isaiah Jackson, who missed most of this season after his own Achilles tear, will be a restricted free agent this summer. Bennedict Mathurin, another contributor off the bench, had some big moments in the postseason and will hit restricted free agency next summer. But there's no replacing Haliburton's rare abilities and face-of-the-franchise qualities, even as Indiana's front office, led by Pritchard and Buchanan, built a championship-level franchise around him — despite never having a top-five pick. Read more here. GO FURTHER Tyrese Haliburton's injury obscures the Pacers' magical run — and their future Justin Ford / Getty Images The Oklahoma City Thunder are now authors of one of the greatest seasons in NBA history after narrowly avoiding a stunning upset with the opponent's best player first hobbled then seriously injured. The Thunder won the franchise's second championship — and first since it moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008 and rebranded from the SuperSonics to the Thunder — by capturing Game 7 of the NBA Finals over the Indiana Pacers 103-91 on Sunday. The game featured a potentially devastating Achilles injury suffered by Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton in the first quarter. Haliburton, who had been playing with a strained right calf since Game 5, fell without contact as he was attempting to dribble past Gilgeous-Alexander and immediately pounded the court in agony without getting up. A replay showed his already injured calf ripple as he fell, and Haliburton's father, John, told the ESPN broadcast that the injury was to his son's Achilles. A non-contact injury, after a strained calf, immediately sparks fears of a torn Achilles, a la Kevin Durant in the 2019 finals. 'What happened with Tyrese, all of our hearts dropped,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. 'He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA with dramatic play after dramatic play. It was just something that no one's ever seen and did it as 1 of 17. You know, that's the beautiful thing about him. As great a player as he is, it's always a team thing.' Check out our live blog for more NBA Finals reaction. GO FURTHER Thunder win first NBA title since relocating to OKC, hold off Pacers in Game 7 Getty Images After its titanic roster teardown at the 2021 NBA trade deadline, the Orlando Magic front office earned a reputation around the league as risk-averse. Magic officials built the nucleus of their roster through the draft, adding Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. Orlando made a few trades here and there, none of them franchise-altering. But rival teams cannot call the Magic apprehensive anymore, not after what they did on Sunday. Orlando traded for hard-nosed, floor-spacing wing Desmond Bane by sending four future first-round picks, a lightly protected 2029 first-round pick swap, veteran wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and guard Cole Anthony to Memphis. It wasn't quite an 'all-in' move, but it sure is close to one. Read more below. GO FURTHER Desmond Bane trade shows Magic's days of playing it safe are over Getty Images You normally wouldn't suspect the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies to be trade partners, since in many ways, the teams are birds of a feather. Both teams weathered multiple injuries en route to first-round playoff exits, both teams have young-ish rosters they're still figuring out but have now become expensive and, most importantly, both teams have the same strengths and weaknesses: A lot of defense and not much shooting. Nonetheless, the Magic and Grizzlies cut a big deal Sunday, one that may be revelatory about the next steps for both teams and the mindset of where they stand. In essence, it was a challenging trade regarding the value of Desmond Bane to a contender on his current contract. Orlando's project still felt too undefined as it waited and waited to push its chips in, with too many random guys and not enough starter-level talent; Memphis, on the flip side, felt too boxed by Bane's salary and the team's lack of transactional flexibility. Read more below. GO FURTHER In Desmond Bane trade, Grizzlies and Magic make opposite bets for the future Getty Images Our first big summer move that doesn't involve a coach being fired, or the New York Knicks calling about a coach under contract, just happened. The Memphis Grizzlies have shocked a lot of people by agreeing to trade Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four unprotected first-round picks and a first-round pick swap. That's a lot of draft capital for Bane, and the Magic are hoping he'll be a great complement to their young duo of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. A complement to this trade news is a set of trade grades, where we'll slap down some red ink and figure out if we're complimenting one or all sides of the deal. Read more about the trade grades below. GO FURTHER Desmond Bane trade grades: Magic, Grizzlies swap guards, but did Orlando give up too much? Getty Images Before there was Kevin Durant getting dealt to the Houston Rockets, the NBA trades didn't stop. The first major trade of the offseason was the Memphis Grizzlies sending Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony and draft picks. Read The Athletic 's Josh Robbins for all the details and analysis from this trade. GO FURTHER Grizzlies trade Desmond Bane to Magic for Caldwell-Pope, Anthony, picks Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images Where things get interesting for the Rockets is what they do next to cement themselves as contenders. This is an obvious chips-in move for them after their half-court offense face-planted against the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. Houston signed the talented but erratic Jalen Green to his contract extension last season partly to be able to use his salary in a trade just like this one, and even the aging version of Kevin Durant is a much more effective engine for playoff offense than Green. The Rockets already committed three years and $39 million to Steven Adams and presumably will re-sign Fred VanVleet to a more cap-friendly, long-term deal after they decline his $42 million team option. The fact that they front-loaded Adams' deal suggests to me they will do the same with VanVleet's to ease the pain of future seasons when likely contract extensions for Tari Eason and Amen Thompson kick in. Houston still needs one more rotation-caliber shooting guard, preferably one who can shoot, and will have its taxpayer midlevel exception to go shopping for it. Then, of course, we have the elephant in the room — what Durant is worth on an extension. He has one year left on a deal that pays him $54.5 million and can sign an extension as soon as he's traded. While he is eligible to sign for two years and $122 million, that's almost certainly an overpay for his age-38 and age-39 seasons. Shaving that number down to something more reasonable is also critical to the cap management of the extension years that I noted above. Presumably, Durant's people and the Rockets at least broached this topic before the trade happened, but they have all year to sign an extension. Regardless, the Rockets are a better playoff team now than they were before, even if this trade might cost them a few regular-season wins. Brooks' stopper role is easily filled by Eason and Thompson, and Durant is better than Green. Yes, it cost them a lottery pick, because it's Kevin freaking Durant. GO FURTHER After Kevin Durant trade domino, what's next for Rockets and Suns? Al Bello / Getty Images It remains absurd how much the Brooklyn Nets ultimately got out of the Kevin Durant trade and what it bought the Phoenix Suns. The Nets ultimately netted out nine first round picks (after dealing Mikal Bridges) and a first-round swap. The Suns got one second round appearance and the No. 10 pick in the 2025 draft. We'll see what Jalen Green will become (though his early Houston years are not indicative of future stardom) and if Phoenix does anything else as a result of this haul. But the Durant trade may ultimately go down as one of the most uneven in NBA history, which is wild since it involves Kevin Durant. Chris Coduto / Getty Images Salary-cap nerds will note that the Kevin Durant trade seems destined to get larger — possibly much larger. The Suns have ample time to negotiate to send either Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks or any of the draft picks to third parties; some potential shenanigans could yield a decent-sized trade exception. Meanwhile, the Rockets can find ways to stuff guys with contract options like Jock Landale or Aaron Holiday in the deal to take back a player from a third team. Cap nerds will also rejoice in the detail that Phoenix missing the playoffs was the only thing that made this trade possible. Because of that, Brooks' $1 million bonus for making the playoffs goes from 'likely' to 'unlikely' and takes his cap number down to $21.1 million for next season, allowing the combination of his and Green's salaries to squeeze in to match Durant's. Phoenix can't take back more than it sends out while it remains over the first apron, which it will be even if it cuts the non-guaranteed deal of Cody Martin and declines the option on Vasilije Micić. Christian Petersen / Getty Images The large logic of the trade itself made a ton of sense for the Suns. The fact that they gave up way too much in the original trade for Kevin Durant is a sunk cost; this particular trade was a decent return that gives them both draft capital and two starters, one of whom is young enough to still get considerably better. They were never doing better than this. I thought this was a fair trade that accomplished reasonable franchise-level goals for both sides. As ever, the real test of whether the trade 'worked' lies in what they can do next. GO FURTHER After Kevin Durant trade domino, what's next for Rockets and Suns? The trade of Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets officially kicks off the NBA offseason cycle, Game 7s be damned. The compression of the NBA Finals, draft and free agency cycles into a two-week sip from the firehose unfortunately necessitates that moves like this happen now. That's especially true in our new collective bargaining agreement environment, where pre-July-1 contract extensions are the norm, a two-day draft is less than a week away and teams and players typically agree to sotto voce free-agent signings very shortly after the league-approved July 1 kickoff. The move also raises particular questions about the two teams involved, Phoenix and Houston, as well as those clubs that ultimately sat this one out. Here's my analysis of the trade. GO FURTHER After Kevin Durant trade domino, what's next for Rockets and Suns? Houston's clutch offense was 18th in points per 100 possession this season. They were 22nd in halfcourt clutch offensive efficiency. Kevin Durant was seventh in clutch offensive efficiency in the NBA last season. He gives the Rockets a perfect solution to their offensive issues without taking away from their elite defense. Despite Jalen Green's strong preference to stay in Houston, league sources said he became increasingly resigned to the reality he was on the move in the days leading up to the Kevin Durant deal with Phoenix. Throughout the process of the negotiation, the pressure of the playoffs — both past and future — remained. While the move wasn't directly tied to Green's struggles against the Warriors, it certainly didn't help his cause that he struggled so mightily at a pivotal point (he averaged 13.3 points while shooting just 37.2 percent overall and 29.5 from 3). Ever since he agreed to a three-year, $106 million extension in October, with Alperen Şengün having received a five-year deal on the same day, rival executives had predicted that Green might be on the move if he didn't meet this Rockets' moment. Green received word that the trade was agreed upon approximately an hour before it was first reported by ESPN. Read more about the trade here. Per a team source, the five second-round picks the Suns are acquiring in the Kevin Durant trade are No. 59 in this week's draft. Two of the three second-rounders Houston owns in 2026. A 2030 pick from Boston. Houston's own second-round pick in 2032. Houston will select for Phoenix in the draft with picks No. 10 and No. 59, won't sign those players to contracts and will include their rights in the July 6 trade call. For months on end, the message from the Houston Rockets was consistent: They had no plans to get into the Kevin Durant business. The 36-year-old was a legend, to be sure, but Rockets sources had insisted that the combination of his age and the Rockets' internal confidence in a much-younger core meant his next destination would almost certainly be elsewhere. Never mind that the two teams had discussed a deal at the February trade deadline, or that their coach, Ime Udoka, had grown close with Durant during their time together in Brooklyn and was known to be a major advocate for a possible Durant move. The list of Durant clues was even longer from there. One of his assistant coaches, Royal Ivey, is a former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate of Durant's and has been one of his closest friends for decades. Just days before the deal went down, it was revealed that one of his University of Texas teammates, D.J. Augustin, would be added to the team's front office. Perhaps most of all, the Rockets' glaring weakness as a team — scoring — just so happened to be the very thing at which Durant had done better than nearly every other player in league history (he's eighth all-time). There were all these signs that Durant was destined to land in Houston – at least in terms of how they were viewed around the league – but the drumbeat of denials remained. Yet by the time the Durant dam finally broke on Sunday, with the Rockets landing Durant from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick and five second-round picks, it wasn't hard to understand why they'd changed course. Here's why the Rockets, aware that this move could make or break their promising era, pivoted from their longstanding stance on one of the game's greatest all-time talents. Ezra Shaw / Getty Images According to a source close to Durant, the future Hall of Famer is 'incredibly excited' about the opportunity to join a contender in Houston, surrounded by a talented coaching staff and top-five defensive unit. The news broke just as he was being interviewed in New York for Fanatics Fest, with the 14-time All-Star letting out a huge grin in front of hundreds of adoring fans. 'We gon' see,' Durant said with a smile, regarding what to expect. Durant has one season remaining on his current contract (worth $54.7 million). Yet while he may not sign an extension when he's eligible in July, team sources said there is a strong belief that this will be a long-term partnership. After weeks of negotiations between Phoenix and so many teams around the league, with Houston, San Antonio and Miami known to be Kevin Durant's preferred destinations and, per league sources, the Suns exploring a variety of three-team structures that never materialized, the Rockets relented on their stance of trading for the 36-year-old Durant. Over multiple weeks of discussions with Phoenix, with Rockets general manager Rafael Stone leading the talks, Houston maintained a firm stance in its refusal to include young players like Reed Sheppard, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason, team sources told The Athletic. The Rockets refused to give up the Suns' 2027 and 2029 first-round selections as well, no matter how motivated the Suns were to recoup those prized picks (they sent them to Brooklyn in the February 2023 Durant deal, and the Rockets landed them in a June 2024 deal with the Nets). The Rockets and Suns found common ground, however, in the availability of the No. 10 pick. Houston had been unable to bring in top players for workouts due to the increased likelihood of the deal and the Suns, through CEO Josh Bartelstein and owner Mat Ishbia, saw the selection as someone who could step in and contribute right away. To recoup assets in a return for Durant, different constructs involving three and four teams were presented, but those never gained suitable footing. Read more of my reporting with Kelly Iko here. Listen to the No Dunks emergency show reacting to the Kevin Durant trade.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Diontae Johnson Addresses Controversial Tenure With Ravens Before 2025 NFL Season
Diontae Johnson Addresses Controversial Tenure With Ravens Before 2025 NFL Season originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Cleveland Browns wide receiver Diontae Johnson will play for his third AFC North team in the 2025 NFL season. After spending the first five seasons of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Johnson shared the 2024 season between the Carolina Panthers, Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans. Advertisement It was with the Ravens that one of his biggest controversies to date happened. The 28-year-old wide receiver refused to enter last season's Week 13 duel against the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles. Fans at M&T Bank Stadium on Dec. 1, where the temperature was 41 degrees at kickoff, saw Johnson refusing to enter the game after Rashod Bateman exited with an injury. Johnson declined, which resulted in a one-game suspension for conduct detrimental to the team and his subsequent waiving. Diontae Johnson was claimed by the Houston Texans but the Los Angeles Chargers were also interested.© Barry Reeger-Imagn Images During an appearance on the "Sports & Suits" podcast (via the Ravens' official site), Johnson opened up on his infamous situation. He blamed the temperature for his decision, which could have hurt his performance. Advertisement "It was cold," Johnson said. "So, I'm on the sideline, just standing there, just going to the heater, back and forth, just waiting to hear my name called. So, end of third [quarter], going into the fourth over there, they're like, 'Tae, we need you.' I'm like, 'Nah.' To me, I'm thinking, 'I don't think it's a good idea for me,' because I was thinking about, like, my legs. I don't want to go out there and put bad stuff on film. "And it's not like I didn't want to go in the game. But you've got to think, like, leading up to this point, I'd been through so much. ... I'd checked out mentally. I was like, 'Whatever happens, happens.' I was just rolling with the punches at that time. So, I told them I wasn't going in. I was like, 'I understand what you're saying, but I'm not going to go in.' So, I just sat on the bench, and that's when they suspended me." Johnson played four games with the Ravens, recording one reception on five targets for six yards and no touchdowns. Johnson was waived and then signed with the Texans. He played one game for them, catching two passes for 12 yards and no touchdowns. He's now set to start a new era with the Browns, but the memory of that December game is still fresh. Related: Ravens Announce Training Camp Dates This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 25, 2025, where it first appeared.
CNN
35 minutes ago
- CNN
CNN reporter finds out what it takes to get drafted to the NBA
CNN's Omar Jimenez visits the Brooklyn Nets' Jalen Wilson and Assistant Coach Jay Hernandez to experience the challenges of getting drafted into the NBA.
