An 8-year-old girl drew up a game plan to meet Taylor Swift — and with a future Hall of Fame center leading the way, she scored a priceless, viral moment.
Third-grader Ella Piazza parlayed determination and good luck to gain a brief but memorable audience with Swift — via the shoulders of shirtless Jason Kelce — at this past weekend’s Kansas City Chiefs-Buffalo Bills game.
“Jason went out of the suite … and then (he) came over here and then he picked me up and then I saw Taylor,” a beaming Ella said exclusively on NBC’s “TODAY” show on Tuesday. “It was, like, amazing.”
Ella, a devoted Swiftie from Rochester, arrived at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Sunday with a sign she wanted to show her favorite singer.
Then as Ella approached the luxury box where Swift was sitting, she got an unexpected boost from Kelce, brother of the 12-time Grammy winner’s boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
The older Kelce, who was free on Sunday after his Philadelphia Eagles were eliminated from the playoffs six nights earlier, spotted Ella, picked her up and made sure she and Swift had their moment.
Ella showed Swift her now-famous homemade sign: “Buffalo Bills + Taylor Swift Best First Game Ever!!”
The moment will live in their memories forever, mother Jessica Piazza said.
“It was amazing,” she said. “She came down, and it was like the happiest I’ve ever seen her. She was like crying, just of happiness. It was so cool.”
Just to get within first down’s distance to Swift took a lot of good luck and stick-to-itiveness by the little girl.
Her family’s tickets were on the other side of the stadium from where Swift and her crew were sitting. But a family friend had seats near Swift’s party and had Ella and her mom drop by halftime for their far-fetched shot at meeting Taylor.
“I was thinking positive, but some of my friends weren’t that positive,” Ella explained, wearing a Swift Eras Tour T-shirt.
Ella had been telling friends she was going to meet Swift even though the odds seemed impossible — and mom Jessica didn’t have the heart to tell her otherwise.
“Ella worked so hard on that sign. And the week prior she was telling all her friends at school that she was going to meet Taylor Swift at the game,” Piazza said. “I knew where we were sitting — and it was clear across the stadium from where the Kelces were probably sitting. But I didn’t want to say anything.”
The mother thanked the shirtless Eagles center Kelce for making this moment possible.
“He was so kind to her,” she said. “And I was just so thankful that he gave her the chance to see Taylor because she was — she was standing up there at the top of the bleachers with her sign just waiting and hoping and so brave — she climbed all the way to the top.”
