Eli Manning Says Daughters Blew Up His Phone After Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Engagement (Exclusive)

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement announcement last week had millions of fans cheering — and that included Eli Manning’s daughters.

“My three girls were very excited about it,” the retired NFL star tells PEOPLE exclusively of the pop superstar and Kansas City Chiefs tight end’s romantic garden proposal on Tuesday, Aug. 26. “Like, all of a sudden my phone just started ringing with FaceTimes and all of them texting and like, ‘Call me. Dad, call me.’ So they were very excited to tell me about the news yesterday.”

“They assumed they’re going to be invited to the wedding,” he added. “Just joking. They’re not going to be invited.”

Manning, 44, and his wife, Abby McGrew, share four children: Ava, 14, Lucy, 12, Caroline, 10, and son Charlie, 7. 

“Happy for Travis and Taylor, and their engagement,” the New York Giants legend went on. “It’s been fun to watch their journey over the few years. And I’m sure the wedding will be fabulous.”

In 2023, the two-time Super Bowl winner told PEOPLE about his family’s reaction to seeing Swift at one of Kelce’s Chiefs games.

“It was fun. I’ve never convinced the three of my girls to sit down on a Sunday and watch a whole lot of football,” he said.

“But once they found out Taylor Swift was at the game, there were three girls glued to the TV just to watch it, trying to figure out who Travis Kelce was and what was going on,” he added. “So it was funny to see their reaction and how Taylor Swift being out at the football game drew their attention to watching football.”

Manning, who stars in a new campaign for King’s Hawaiian, teamed up with the dinner roll brand to launch Football Season-ing, a blend to liven up sliders, dips, pasta salads and other staples.

He shows off a new look for the commercial, wearing an argyle sweater vest and tie for a book club meeting, during which he encourages fellow members to ditch their literary discussion in favor of celebrating “Slider Sunday.”

“Sundays are about traditions, and it’s about family and friends,” Manning told PEOPLE. “And when you bring family, friends and football together, you need great food.”

He admitted the most fun part of filming the funny video was getting to sport some facial hair.

“I think any opportunity to wear a mustache,” he said. “I prefer a mustache in any possibility. I can’t grow one for real, so always so jealous and envious of people with mustaches.”