NFL
Young Girl That a Shirtless Jason Kelce Took to Meet Taylor Swift Says It Was ‘Amazing’
Ella Piazza made a sign before the Bills-Chiefs game on Sunday and said she was “thinking positive” before the game that she would meet the superstar
In her wildest dreams, Ella Piazza believed she would meet Taylor Swift.
The 8-year-old Penfield, New York girl — who went viral after a shirtless Jason Kelce helped her wave at the superstar during Sunday’s Bills-Chiefs playoff game — said that she manifested the moment the week before it happened.
“I was thinking positive, but some of my friends weren’t that positive,” Piazza said on the Today show Tuesday.
Yet the opportunity almost didn’t happen.
Ella and her mom, Jessica Piazza, were sitting on the opposite side of Highmark Stadium from where Swift, Kelce family members and their friends were watching the game. But Jessica’s friend — who was sitting in the section under the suite — suggested they switch spots at halftime, the mother said on Today.
With a handmade sign that read “Buffalo Bills + Taylor Swift – Best First Game Ever” in tow, the mother and daughter changed their seats.
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“It was halftime and a lot of people had left their seats to go to the bathroom or get a drink or whatever, and so we just tried climbing up higher and higher,” Jessica recalled. “It was really Ella who was forging the path. When people saw her sign, everyone started helping her. It was really cute.”
That’s when the shirtless Philadelphia Eagles center decided to hop into the stands and spotted the third-grader.
“Then [he] came over here and then he picked me up and then I saw Taylor,” Ella said. “It was, like, amazing.”
The NFL star, 36, held her her so that the “Anti-Hero” singer, seated in the suite, could read her sign.
Ella, who was clad in Bills colors, waved to Swift, and then she and the Eagles star posed for a picture.
“He was so kind to her,” Jessica said about Kelce, who shares three girls with his wife Kylie. “I was just so thankful that he gave her the chance to see Taylor because she was — she was standing up there at the top of the bleachers with her sign just waiting and hoping and so brave — she climbed all the way to the top.”
After the experience, the longtime Bills fan described her daughter as being in “absolute heaven” and “the happiest I’ve ever seen her.”
“She still probably doesn’t realize what a big star Jason Kelce also is. She just couldn’t believe she saw Taylor! The rest of the game she was on cloud nine.”
Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and the Kansas City Chiefs went on to beat the Buffalo Bills 27-24, securing them a spot in the AFC Championship where they’ll face the Baltimore Ravens for the chance to compete at Super Bowl LVIII.