From the NFL to the All Blacks, professional athletes have been ditching metal for silicone rings. We wonder will loved-up Kelce join them? 

As Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce make it official, the world's attention has turned, as it invariably does with Swift, to every conceivable detail. But there is one detail that will matter long after the confetti has settled: what does a professional NFL tight end do with a metal band he’s not supposed to take off? If Kelce follows a trend that has been spreading through professional sport for more than a decade, the answer may not be what you'd expect.

Silicone wedding rings have become the choice of the modern athlete. Flexible, lightweight and, crucially, designed to break away under pressure rather than constrict, they offer something a platinum band cannot: the ability to wear your commitment to the field. For a man whose hands are both his livelihood and a frequent target, injury from a metal ring is a risk he might not be willing to take.

The trend among athletes is well established. In 2013, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton was mocked on HBO’s Hard Knocks for wearing what appeared to be a rubber band on his ring finger. It was silicone. The ridicule backfired, however, as viewers asked questions and coverage followed. By 2016 ESPN estimated at least 100 NFL players had made the switch. The reason given is mainly around anatomy, surgeons call it ring avulsion, when a metal band catches during physical contact and strips skin from bone. Silicone breaks before the finger does. The trend has spread well beyond the US. In 2019, All Blacks flanker Ardie Savea wore a pink silicone ring throughout the Rugby World Cup. Asked about it, he was characteristically direct: “I like the pink, it’s like bang!”

Data from Australian wedding ring brand ETRNL suggests the mainstream has followed the athletes. Three in four of the brand’s orders are now silicone rings, a sign that what began as a practical workaround for professional sport has become a genuine lifestyle choice.

Kelce, who has never appeared to take the conventional route in anything, seems like exactly the kind of person to quietly slip on a silicone band and say nothing about it. Swift, whose 2023 song “The Alchemy” appeared to reference their relationship in terms of winning, would presumably understand the logic.

Whether or not Kelce makes the switch, the conversation is already happening. The ring you wear to the altar and the ring you wear to training do not have to be the same ring. For a growing number of men, that distinction is becoming normal. 

His new wife, one suspects, would approve.