Travis Kelce’s wedding to Taylor Swift may have been packed with star power, but not everyone around the Chiefs came away feeling included.
According to multiple Chiefs players, the invite list has already set off a round of private chatter, with group chats and direct messages filling up fast after some teammates realized they weren’t part of the celebration. One player told the Daily Mail that the wedding invite situation has turned into locker-room noise, especially around Harrison Butker.
Butker’s absence became its own talking point. The Chiefs player said the decision not to invite him led to snippy text messages in various group chats, and that some players who are close to Butker took it personally.
“It’s really their wedding, and I understand why they wouldn’t have invited [Butker]. But there’s some difference of opinion [between players].
Lots of texts are going around the team, and some people who are close to Harrison feel like he was snubbed.”
That same player said the team’s internal reaction has been messy enough that people are actively trying to stir it up. “There’s now a lot of gossip going on.
Training camp [for the new NFL season] starts in three weeks, and it’s going to be a whole thing. A lot of guys want it to be drama [between Butker and Kelce].
They just like that s**t… a couple of the guys are being messy and texting Harrison to see what he thinks. We’re like a high school team sometimes.”
A second Chiefs player painted the picture of a roster split into a bunch of smaller message threads, not one giant team chat. “It’s not like all of us are in the same [group chat].
The team is too big. So there are groups that might just be like defense [players], or a certain group of guys.
There are some with me in, some without me. I am in about seven chains of players, some are professional… some are just used for talking s**t.”
He added that the wedding talk was mostly happening in the chats where Travis Kelce wasn’t included. “I think most of the texts about the wedding are probably being sent in the groups without Travis.
I have one that has about eight of us, and, before the wedding, it was like ‘Who’s going?’ And everyone was saying where they were staying, or why they weren’t going.”
The same player said the attendance was lighter than some might expect. “I think maybe half the team went, probably less.
A lot of people RSVP’d no, not because of anything bad, but because of a conflict. I didn’t go because I didn’t want to spend the 4th in New York and couldn’t bring my kids.”
There was also some joking around about gifts. “Some people asked, ‘Do we have to send them a gift?’, because they have more money than us, which was funny.
People were coming up with funny things to send. I thought it would be funny to send him something that was monogrammed ‘Mr and Mrs Swift’.
That type of thing. We sent each other memes and pictures.”
The first Chiefs player said the team’s reaction hasn’t crossed into real hostility. “Can’t say too much because Travis is my friend… Yeah, there are a few group texts.
I’m on one with Harrison [Butker]. Someone sent a news story about him not being invited, and the group was like ‘WTF?’
But he didn’t reply.”
He also pushed back on the idea that the wedding has created a true rift. “I don’t think anyone on the team wishes [Kelce] anything but good things.
Everyone likes him. He’s a good teammate and a good friend.
There’s locker room s**t, but it’s nothing disrespectful.”
Most of the practical talk, he said, was about the wedding itself. “Most of [our group] texts were just logistics about how people were getting from their hotels to the wedding, or what everyone was going to wear.
The women [players’ wives and girlfriends] have other text groups. Taylor is officially a football wife now, and she’ll be invited to their wine nights and stuff, but she won’t go.
I’m sure of that. But if you want trash talk, you have to see their group texts.
My girlfriend won’t even let me look at her phone to see it.”
Kelce and Swift invited more than 1,000 people to the wedding, including Jason Kelce, Austin Swift, Ed and Donna Kelce, Scott and Andrea Swift, Andy Reid, Patrick and Brittany Mahomes, Chris Jones, and Isiah Pacheco. Retired NFL linebacker Will Compton also publicly said he was stunned not to get an invite.
One Chiefs player said there’s still time for the situation to cool off before training camp starts in three weeks.
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