Travis Kelce’s Ex Kayla Nicole Notes His ‘Slow Start’ to NFL Season

Kayla Nicole dropped ex-boyfriend Travis Kelce’s name while discussing sports bets for Monday Night Football.

Nicole, 32, appeared in a clip shared by I Am Athlete Daily’s Instagram account on Monday, October 7, wherein she cited potential upcoming bets ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs vs. New Orleans Saints game. Also in the clip were Tad Prescott and former NFL stars Brandon Marshall and Aqib Talib.

After referencing Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, calling him the “G.O.A.T,” she moved on to Kelce, 34, noting his “slow start” in the 2024-2025 NFL season. “Do you think he’s going to get more than 58.5 receiving yards?” she asked Marshall and Talib, who replied, “Yeah, I think he gets more. Like I said, no Rashee Rice, they tried to force feed him last time so you’re going to definitely need him.”

Nicole dated Kelce, 35, off and on between 2017 to 2022 before they split for good. Kelce later moved on with global pop superstar Taylor Swift in July 2023.

Last year, Nicole told People she had unfollowed both Mahomes, 29, and his wife, Brittany Mahomes, on social media amid her ex-boyfriend’s new high-profile relationship.

“I do think it’s important to publicly address this because I did publicly unfollow people,” Nicole told the outlet in October 2023. “The reality is I know these people in real life. And so, in real life, I’ve communicated to these people why I’ve had to publicly make the decisions that I made.”

As for Kelce, his 2024-2025 start saw him catch only eight passes in the Chief’s first three games of the season for a total of 69 yards — which is no secret to him or his fans. “For whatever reason, these past two games it hasn’t gone that way for me,” he said during the September 18 episode of his “New Heights” podcast. “That’s football, man. I’m not about to sit here and get frustrated about it.”

Swift, for her part, has not yet been to a Chiefs game this season. However, while celebrating his birthday on Saturday, October 5, at his “Kelce Car Jam” charity event, Kelce seemingly confirmed that Swift, 34, would be in attendance at Monday’s Chiefs vs. Saints game. Per social media footage, Kelce was heard telling a fan, “She will not be here right now. I know she’s coming for the game.”

Kelce and Swift made their public debut as a couple in September 2023 when she attended her first game at Arrowhead Stadium.

“By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date,” Swift told TIME in her December 2023 Person of the Year profile. “When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care.”