Travis Kelce overtakes Patrick Mahomes in a ‘war’ between the Chiefs stars conditioned by Taylor Swift

It’s a surprising metric

Internal competition drives championship-caliber teams forward — and the Kansas City Chiefs are no exception. The Chiefs stand on the precipice of NFL history in 2024, as Kansas City could become the first team in the Super Bowl era to win the NFL’s championship game in three consecutive seasons — and fans will be following along keenly as team icons Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes seek to lift the Chiefs to even greater heights.

But Mahomes and Kelce have another battle brewing off the field, in addition to dispatching the competition while on it. This “battle” has to do with the two players’ social media followings, and Kelce has just passed a significant milestone — leaving Mahomes to play “catch-up.”

Kelce now boasts more Instagram followers than any other Chiefs player

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As of Tuesday, Kelce has surpassed his longtime friend and teammate Mahomes in total Instagram followers, and he is now the most-followed Chiefs player on the globally-popular platform.

Kelce received nearly 257,000 new followers on the Gram following his surprise appearances at girlfriend Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concerts in London and Dublin last month. That took his total to 6,792,084 followers — greater than Mahomes’ 6,790,013 followers.

However, Kelce has work to do to catch up to Odell Beckham, Jr. — the NFL’s leader in Instagram followers. Beckham, who joined the Miami Dolphins this spring, boasts more than 17 million followers on the platform — nearly three times as many as Kelce and Mahomes.

However, given Kelce’s continuing romance with Swift, it stands to reason that he will edge ever closer to Beckham and become the NFL’s most “popular” player sooner rather than later.