Football tight ends function to protect their quarterback in the middle of NFL plays, and few do it better than Travis Kelce.

Kelce has been the Kansas City Chiefs’ top tight end since 2013, four years before Patrick Mahomes signed with the Missouri team as a quarterback.

“Obviously, I get here at the beginning of the year [and] I’m still a rookie, so I’m kind of going through the motions and try to figure out the best way to fit in and I think the first time I thought me and Travis were gonna be connected … was [after] the fourth preseason game,” Mahomes recalled on Kelce’s“New Heights” podcast in December 2022, noting Kelce happened to be partying at the “same spot” as Mahomes and the other rookies, who invited the crew to join him.

Mahomes ended up being late to the Chiefs’ “walk-through” — just like Kelce. “I was like, ‘Dope, I’m not alone! Let’s go, man,’” Kelce quipped. “At that point, I knew we were teammates.”

Mahomes and Kelce’s bond also flourished off the NFL field — and extended to their respective romances. Mahomes and his wife, Brittany Matthews, even spent time with Kelce’s love interest Taylor Swift in early October 2023.

“The fact that Patrick and Travis are best friends makes things even better,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly of Swift and Matthews’ game day bond. “They’re having a blast and love cheering on their men together.”

Scroll down for Mahomes and Kelce’s sweetest friendship moments through the years: