“And then he started bringing Taylor around and you realize how cool of a person she was and she is…” the quarterback said in a new interview.

America’s First Couple, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, remain the number one topic of conversation around the nation. For prime evidence, check out the YouTube pages for every major late night talk show (Fallon, Kimmel, Meyers): over the last few months, practically every other guest has found up a way to bring up Swift, no matter what the topic of their interview, because both they and the late-night programs are aware that the pop star’s name will draw clicks in any context.

Patrick Mahomes, star quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, has good reason to discuss Swift, however. And he did just that on Talk of the Table on CBS on Friday morning, when host Nate Burleson asked him how the NFL team was dealing with Swift and Kelce’s extremely high-profile courtship.

Long before Swift and Kelce became inseparable, Kelce and Mahomes have been tight-knit work besties. Now, Swift and Mahomes’ wife Brittany Mahomes are also getting close.

“Did you guys address the elephant in the room in the beginning?” Burleson asked Mahomes, referring to Swift.

“At first, I feel like everybody kind of stayed away, just let him do what he was doing,” Mahomes replied.

“And then he started bringing Taylor around and you realize how cool of a person she was and she is,” Mahomes continued. “So for us—I mean, it was a couple of jokes here and there in the beginning—but now, she’s just part of Chiefs Kingdom and she’s part of the team.”

“So for me, it’s just Travis, man, and he’s lucky enough to be with a great girl—and a great woman—and it’s been cool to kind of interact with her and see ’cause she’s top tier of her profession and see how she drives and she becomes that,” Mahomes said. “I have a first-hand look at that through Brittany and Travis’ eyes… I think that’s why her and Travis match so well.”