Taylor Swift's opinion on NFL and attention it's given her is crystal clear

Taylor Swift didn't care much for the NFL growing up in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. But she has now revealed her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has changed her perspective.

The singer-songwriter gave a clear opinion on the NFL to TIME for its "Person of the Year" cover story, telling the magazine, "Football is awesome, it turns out. I've been missing out my whole life."

Swift has attended many of Kelce's games around the country, cheering him on from a suite. Usually, friends and family of Chiefs players surround her in the luxury box. Her first public appearance with Kelce at an NFL stadium was on Sept. 24 at Arrowhead when the Chiefs defeated the Chicago Bears.

TV broadcasters have made a habit of cutting to a live feed of Swift after big plays involving Kelce. Some fans have complained about the sideshow - but Swift insisted it's out of her control.

"I don't know how they know what suite I'm in," Swift told TIME. "There's a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don't know where it is, and you have no idea when the-camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don't know if I'm being shown 17 times or once."

Meanwhile, Swift revealed her relationship with Kelce came together before the public realized they were together, laughing off the idea she would make an NFL game a first date. As a celebrity since her teenage years, she's accustomed to evading cameras when she desires.

"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," Swift said. "The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you're seeing someone. And we're just proud of each other.

"So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I'm grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. 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 is back home after taking her Eras concert tour to South America. She'll hit the road again in February for four shows in Tokyo in four days, leaving the United States just days before Kelce potentially appears in the Super Bowl. Once the NFL season ends, Kelce can join Swift for her global travels.