Heidi Gardner Calls Donna Kelce Her ‘Bonus Mom’ as She Reveals Her First Date Was at a Chiefs Game

Heidi Gardner is a lifelong Kansas City Chiefs fan.

Gardner, 41, is a native of the Missouri city that’s dominated the NFL in recent years behind the success of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid, and she tells PEOPLE that bonding with Kelce, 34, and his family has been a full circle moment for her.

“I spend my summers in Kansas City. All of my friends and my family are still here,” says Gardner at the Chiefs’ World’s Largest Tailgate at Arrowhead Stadium — the same location where the Saturday Night Live star went on her very first date in middle school.

“My mom had gotten tickets through a client of hers,” the comedian explains, adding parents have been “big time” Chiefs fans for her entire life.

“I brought my seventh grade boyfriend…my first date was at Arrowhead,” says Gardner — wearing a beaded friendship bracelet that spells out “SNL” and “Sunday Night Football.”

Gardner first got to know Kelce when the Chiefs tight end hosted SNL in February 2023. “My brothers actually came out for the show and we tailgated in my dressing room before, and Travis and Jason Kelce came and ate barbecue too,” says Gardner, calling the experience “really cool.”

The Chiefs hosted their World’s Largest Tailgate: Tailgate Games kickoff party on Thursday, Sept. 5 before their victory over the Baltimore Ravens, and Gardner was able to reunite with Travis and Jason’s mom, Donna Kelce at the stadium.

“Today, I claimed her as my bonus mom,” Gardner jokes just after filming a segment for the event’s livestream where she and Donna made friendship bracelets together — a nod to Travis’ girlfriend Taylor Swift.

Gardner is a fan of Kelce and Swift, 34, together, and she thinks it’s good for the Chiefs and great for football that the team’s fanbase has welcomed the newfound attention since the singer began attending games.

“As a selfish Chiefs fan, I think just the more support and positive energy we can put around the team and lift them up, it can only do good things,” she says of the fanfare around the team amid Swift’s presence at games. “I think it’s really cool.”

And now that some of Gardner’s female friends have begun dipping their toes into the football world — a few of whom were inspired by Swift’s presence — she’s excited to share her love of the NFL with them. “I have a lot of female friends now who don’t watch it but want to get into it, and I feel lucky that I’ve known the game since I was a kid because you do have to learn how it works,” she tells PEOPLE.

“And I said, ‘I will give you lessons.’ Men, women, anyone, I’ll give you football lessons — watching football lessons, not playing,” she adds with a laugh.

Unlike many football fans, however, Gardner isn’t a fan of trash talking on behalf of her Chiefs.

“I don’t want to jinx anything, so I never get cocky,” says Gardner. “So every time someone’s like, ‘Are you going to rip this team apart?’ I’m like, ‘I’m only sending love to my team and hoping for the best.’ ”