Tight End University (TEU) is back for a sixth summer in 2026, and Taylor Swift is attending once again with fiancé and TEU co-founder Travis Kelce.
Ahead of the three-day camp’s start on Tuesday, June 23, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, another of TEU’s co-founders, joined USA TODAY Sports to discuss last year’s event. One of Kittle’s main revelations about the 2025 edition of the camp is that his mom played a significant role in encouraging Swift to put on her surprise performance.
Advertisement
“Last year, [Swift] said ‘no,’ and then she just showed up and did it,” Kittle told USA TODAY Sports’ Chris Bumbaca in a one-on-one interview. “I was like, ‘Sick! Thanks!’
“I’m pretty sure my mom bullied her into doing it. It was awesome. … It was dead in the water; I wasn’t even going to ask, and my mom was like, ‘I got her to say yes.’ I was like, ‘OK! What do I need to do?'”
TEU 2026: Will Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift attend Tight End University? What we know
Kittle said his mother managed to convince Swift after hanging out with the singer-songwriter superstar ahead of the Tight Ends and Friends benefit concert last June. The tight end’s mom told Swift she would have “so much fun up there” and reminded her she would be doing it for her fiancé and her “many fans.”
Advertisement
“Where we were last year, there was only like a thousand people, but I’ll say for a thousand people, I’ve never heard anywhere as loud as that,” Kittle said. “That was like Seattle on a third down to win the game. That’s how loud it was. It was crazy. So sick.”
While Swift is back in attendance at TEU in Nashville with Kelce in 2026, it’s unclear whether she’ll be performing again.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Taylor Swift’s 2025 TEU concert happened thanks to George Kittle’s mom
