Taylor Swift Gifted Her Scarf to This Chiefs Fan: ‘The Scarf Smelled Like Home’ (Exclusive)
“Taylor coined me as her ‘good luck charm,’ noticed my face was bright red and gave me her scarf,” Beth Vancil told PEOPLE
COURTESY OF BETH LYNCH/JOYA FOR PEOPLE
Beth Vancil remembers Saturday’s frigid Chiefs-Dolphins game all too well.
Taylor Swift, 34, was seated directly behind her. The pop star left her scarf there in Vancil’s hands — and the lucky Kansas City Chiefs fan has still got it in her house, even now.
“The scarf smelled like home,” Vancil told PEOPLE on Monday, just before taking photos of her 4-year-old daughter wearing it.
While interacting with fans from her Arrowhead Stadium box seat window, Swift noticed how cold some people in the crowd were amid the below-zero degree temperatures at one of the coldest games in NFL history.
That’s when the 12-time Grammy winner, who is dating Chiefs player Travis Kelce, gifted the St. Louis resident the — not red — scarf.
In the Swiftie community, a red scarf is synonymous with Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version),” the fan-favorite song containing lyrics about her red scarf an ex-boyfriend kept after they broke up.
“We came, we saw, we conquered, we swag surfed with Donna [Kelce], Taylor and Brittany [Mahomes] and Taylor gave me her scarf (it was not red and she doesn’t want it back),” Vancil noted in the caption of an Instagram selfie with Swift, Mahomes and her friend Betsy Nacrelli.
Vancil, whose favorite Swift song is “Love Story” and who went to Swift’s Reputation Tour, capped off the caption with Swift-coded emojis. “🧣 🏈 🫶🏻.”
“During the game, Taylor coined me as her ‘good luck charm,’ noticed my face was bright red and gave me her scarf,” Vancil told PEOPLE. “Ironically, I was visiting Kansas City that weekend for an event for the jewelry company Collections by Joya, who just released a new charm bar, so the nickname felt even more fitting.”
The Chiefs, who beat the Dolphins, are now 7-3 with Swift in attendance.
COURTESY OF BETH LYNCH/JOYA FOR PEOPLE
The other victories that the “Cruel Summer” singer has attended were when the Chiefs defeated the Chicago Bears on Sept. 24, New York Jets on Oct. 1, Denver Broncos on Oct. 12, Los Angeles Chargers on Oct. 22, New England Patriots on Dec. 17, and Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 31.
Before and after giving away her scarf to Vancil, Swift stayed warm with Mahomes at the game by wearing matching jackets — customized with their respective significant other’s name and numbers — to root for Kelce and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The jackets were designed by Kristin Juszczyk, who is married to San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk.