Tyler Hynes and Hunter King know all too well that many eyes will be on their Hallmark rom-com made alongside the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I was just so excited,” King, 30, exclusively told Us Weekly on the red carpet at the 2024 ESPY Awards at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre on Thursday, July 11. “Watching this collaboration unfold and seeing everyone else’s excitement made my excitement even more heightened than it already was.”
King and Hynes, 38, will costar in the network’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, which will premiere during the network’s “Countdown to Christmas” later this year. King plays Alana Higman, whose Chiefs-obsessed family hopes to win a “Fan of the Year” contest. Hynes portrays Derrick, the team’s director of fan engagement. Per a logline, he starts spending time with Alana as he is “tasked with evaluating how Alana and her family stack up against the other two finalists.”
The synopsis adds, “As the pair spends time together, it’s clear there’s a spark between them, but when her grandfather’s (Ed Begley Jr.) vintage Chiefs good luck winter hat goes missing, Alana begins to doubt everything she believed about fate, destiny and even questions her future with Derrick — unless, that is, a little Christmas magic can throw a Hail Mary.”
Holiday Touchdown, which is currently filming around Kansas City and inside the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium, will be Hallmark’s first partnership with an NFL team. It’s a fitting collaboration as the squad has seen a flurry of new fans since tight end Travis Kelce started dating pop star Taylor Swift in summer 2023. They publicly confirmed their relationship in September 2023 when Swift, 34, went to her first Chiefs game and excitedly cheered on Kelce, also 34 from a private suite with his family and friends.
“It really felt like it was a no-brainer,” Hynes told Us on Thursday of signing up for the project. “There’s something about the two brands. The two fandoms are so paralleled and similar in their passion and their purity for what they love. Coming together seemed perfect.”
Holiday Touchdown will satisfy romance and sports fans alike just as Swift and Kelce’s relationship has. Hynes and King have also been invested in all things Tayvis Nation, the unofficial ship name for the couple.
“I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty excited. I’m a Swiftie,” Hunter, whose sister Joey King appeared in Swift’s “Mean” and “I Can See You” music videos, gushed on Thursday. “To see her happy with someone who makes her happy and shows her off makes me so happy for her.”
Hynes also watched the couple’s love story unfold from afar.
“I was watching with the rest of the world. I knew all about it,” the Three Men and a Baby star quipped. “Now making this movie and being roped into the world feels like icing on top.”
Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story does not currently have a premiere date.
With reporting by Daniel Trainor
