Former Chiefs GM Scott Pioli Shares Perspective on Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and Micromanaging

When asked about how Kelce and the Chiefs are managing his new international superstardom, former Chiefs GM Scott Pioli drew on his time in KC to share his perspective.

Former Kansas City Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli led an era of Chiefs football that most fans would rather forget, but during an appearance on Good Morning Football on NFL Network on Tuesday, he drew on his time in KC to comment on a part of the Chiefs' season that has reached far beyond football.

Pioli's comments surround Travis Kelce's high-profile trip to Argentina over the bye week, where he watched Taylor Swift perform as she changed a lyric to allude to "the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me" before riling up the internet again with a post-show embrace. It's certainly an atypical year with a host of unpredictable moments involving Kelce and the Chiefs.

Pioli was asked if the Chiefs should try to manage or embrace Kelce's busy off-the-field schedule.

"I don't think it's just his greatness that allows him to quote-unquote 'get away with that,'" Pioli began. "Here's the deal, for 10 or 11 years, Kelce has made a lot of good decisions. He's made a ton of good decisions to make sure that he's prepared for every week, to be a tremendous professional. He has proven that. He's got a track record. He has shown the team that."

After starting with Kelce's side of the equation, Pioli turned to how the Chiefs' front office has built the team's culture.

"The other thing is this: Andy Reid and Brett Veach have a culture," Pioli continued. "It's a culture where there is a great deal of accountability. So, I don't think that this happened without Andy and Brett knowing, I'm sure they talked about it, everyone knew that it was going to be seen, but again, I wouldn't get too worried about a player like Travis Kelce because, again, he's done everything that he needs to do."

Then, Pioli drew on his own experience as the Chiefs' general manager and discussed the mistakes he made in KC and how it would impact his mindset now.

"One of the shortcomings I had as a leader when I ascended to the general manager role was at times micromanaging things and players when I thought they were maybe putting themselves in too much peril," Pioli said. "It's kind of like being a parent, where you don't want to see someone make too big of a mistake. I made that mistake in trying to over-manage or micromanage certain things and it worked the other way. So I think right now, they did the right thing as long as there was clear communication between Andy, Brett, and Travis Kelce."

Should the Chiefs front office be concerned over Travis Kelce's midseason extracurricular activities?

Our front office analyst @scottpioli51 speaks on it pic.twitter.com/mytAnUZw60

— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) November 14, 2023

Reactions, overreactions, and why Pioli's comments are worth reading

The question itself, asked by Jamie Erdahl, is fine by me. I could nitpick with the insinuation that Reid or Veach might need to have "harder conversations" with Kelce, but I thought the question was clearly leading Pioli to a place where he could comment on some of the off-the-field elements of the job that don't often make it to the surface. Then, to his credit, Pioli did exactly that, even alluding to his time in KC that is remembered more for candy wrappers and parking spaces than winning football. Erdahl seems to be taking heat online for doing something hosts do all the time: asking a question for the sake of setting up your guest.

If you oversimplify the entire conversation to "Should teams get to decide who their players date?" it's a pretty short discussion. No, of course not. Do teams care how their players spend their time? Absolutely. With a chance to hear from a former GM about an incredibly unique situation (Swift isn't an anonymous partner, and Kelce is a future Hall-of-Famer), I don't understand the desire to get bent out of shape about that topic making it to the airwaves.

From Pioli's perspective, I thought it was genuinely interesting to hear him look back on his mistakes in Kansas City and to discuss how his perspective has changed over the years since. I don't know that Kelce needed to give Veach or Reid a heads-up that he'd be an accessory to international news again over the bye week, but Kelce has earned the trust of the organization in a way that the team should be grateful for. Not only is he an ambassador for the Chiefs and the NFL in circumstances like the league's international games, he's also the reason the biggest musical star in the world sang about "the guy on the Chiefs" to an international audience who may have just found their favorite new sports team. Kelce has earned the benefit of the doubt, and everyone is benefitting because of it.