KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Saints defensive tackle Khalen Saunders probably left pop superstar Taylor Swift and his former team with some mixed feelings after a two-play series against the Chiefs in his return to Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night.
First, the big defensive tackle stopped Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on an inside pass play when they had first-and-goal at the New Orleans 2. Then, on the very next play, Saunders watched Patrick Mahomes' pass bounce off JuJu Smith-Schuster’s hands and right into his waiting arms for his first career interception, which he returned on a 37-yard rumble as his own sideline went wild.
They were two of the biggest highlights for the Saints in a 26-13 loss to the defending Super Bowl champions.
“Coming from playing here for four years, and all the respect in the world for Patrick, you got to take advantage of the mistakes they make. And so just to be on the other end of the mistake that was made, man, that was special,” Saunders said.
“Wish we could’ve come out with a win," he added, "but you know, I think that we learned a lot about our team."
So how did Swift factor into everything?
For one thing, she has been dating Kelce for more than a year, and was back at Arrowhead Stadium to see him play after missing the Chiefs’ last two games on the road. For another, one of her backup dancers happens to be Saunders’ brother, Kameron.
The two-play sequence will surely wake up the conspiracy theorists who think the NFL is rigged, too. The ESPN telecast had just shown a picture of Kameron Saunders with Swift and Kelce during a trip to London, where the Chiefs tight end made a cameo in one of her performances at Wembley Stadium on her Eras Tour over this summer.
Kameron Saunders has also joined Swift in a suite to see games at Arrowhead Stadium in the past.
The football-playing Saunders brother was a third-round draft pick of the Chiefs in 2019, and he won a pair of Super Bowl rings over his first four seasons with them. But he signed with New Orleans as a free agent a couple of years ago, and he returned to Arrowhead Stadium for the first time to face his former team in front of Swift and a boisterous Chiefs crowd.
It was some of that inside knowledge that may have helped him on Kelce's reception.
“I knew it was coming. I know that little ‘tight end flip,'" Saunders said. “Man, I told you, there’s certain plays they just can’t run while I’m in the game. And a lot of them are screens and the tight end flip. I was on the scout team for a long time. I have been going against Trav and Pat for a long time. I know all the little tricks and stuff like that.”
As for his return skills on the interception ... well, the 324-pound tackle won't be mistaken for a sprinter any time soon.
“I was trying to get it home, man. Take it home. Them running back days flashed in my head,” Saunders said, "and I was like, ‘That’s 101 (yards). That’s a little ways to go.’ But I was trying to give us some real field position.”
The Saints wound up turning the turnover into a touchdown, closing within 16-13 early in the fourth quarter. But the Chiefs answered with a touchdown of their own before putting the game away with a late field goal.
“We got to continue going forward,” Saunders said. “This doesn’t do anything but guarantee that we won’t be any better than 14-3 and I believe that. I’ve been on teams that lost in Week 10 and didn’t lose no more. So stuff like that is always encouraging.”