Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff opened up about the whirlwind of attention he experienced after pop superstar Taylor Swift mentioned him on a podcast listened to by millions within its first 24 hours. According to Sports Illustrated on Thursday, August 14, the NFL star revealed that his phone nearly “exploded” with messages following the high-profile name-drop.
“Yeah, pretty crazy, huh? Very cool, I guess,” Goff, 30, told reporters. “That was a crazy couple of hours last night for me and my phone. I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ But yeah, pretty cool.”
The mention came during the August 13 episode of New Heights, the podcast cohosted by Swift’s boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, 35, and his brother Jason Kelce, 37. Swift, 35, who appeared as a special guest on the highly anticipated episode, spoke candidly about her early impressions of the NFL and her humorous misconceptions prior to dating Travis.
“I thought it was like, Jared Goff is here, and Josh Allen’s here,” Swift recalled. “They’re gonna be like, they blow a whistle, and they go at each other, and they’re like ‘grrrr,’ and it’s like, who’s gonna win?”
In her characteristic playful style, Swift also joked about the reaction she’s received from male sports fans since becoming a regular fixture at NFL games with Travis, who began dating her in the summer of 2023.
“As we all know, you guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast,” she said. “And I think we all know that if there’s one thing male sports fans want to see in their spaces and on their screens — it’s more of me.”
Beyond her humorous NFL anecdotes, Swift used the podcast to reveal major details about her upcoming 12th studio album, Life of a Showgirl. The singer unveiled both the cover and the track list of the record, which she described as a labor of love created during her European Eras Tour. The episode drew over 13 million views on YouTube within the first 24 hours, underscoring her immense cultural influence.
“It was something that I was working on while I was in Europe on the Eras Tour. I just love it. I just love it a lot,” Swift said of the new album. “Working on this, I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating.”
For Life of a Showgirl, Swift teamed up with her longtime collaborators Max Martin and Shellback. The trio, who previously worked together on chart-topping hits such as “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “Bad Blood,” and “Blank Space,” took on the entire album as a tight-knit creative team.
“We’ve made songs that I’m so proud of,” Swift said. “We’ve never made an album before where it’s just the three of us. It felt like catching lightning in a bottle, honestly.”
As Swift continues to dominate both the music and cultural landscape, her playful nods to sports figures like Jared Goff only add to the buzz surrounding her every move. For Goff, the moment served as a surreal reminder of the unexpected intersections between sports and pop culture, leaving the quarterback to navigate the flurry of attention with a mix of amusement and awe.