Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months you know that pop superstar Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelse, a professional football player with the Kansas City Chiefs. Everything Taylor does is scrutinized 27 ways til Sunday, so of course her dating life is no exception.
And since we live in the pro-conspiracy theory age, it should come as no surprise that the tin foil hat wearing nut jobs out there are going absolutely bonkers over this. I’ve seen claims that these two are dating to impact the 2024 Presidential election, that Taylor is actively trying to “tank” the Chief’s season (which clearly didn’t work since they are in the Super Bowl again) and that Taylor is really trying to get to Travis’ brother Jason, a happily married father of three. And these are some of the LESS insane theories out there!
But setting all that aside, there is one complaint that many even non-lunatics have latched on to. That Taylor Swift is “ruining NFL football”. This is so stupid I hate to even acknowledge it, but trying to avoid it is like trying to avoid death or taxes. It’s impossible.
There are many, many statistics that show that Taylor was good for the NFL. Ratings went up. Sales of jerseys and related NFL items soared. Thousands of men reported that their wives and / or daughters asking to watch with them and /or asked more questions about football. As a female fan, I am all for more female fans!
But we all know that’s not what the whiners meant by “ruining football”. For decades it’s been commonplace for TV coverage of NFL games to include shots of famous people in attendance, yet these losers are triggered by commentators making bad puns based on Taylor Swift song titles and shots of her cheering at Chiefs games. Things which Taylor herself has NO control over I might add. Yes, she is one of the most recognizable and powerful people on the planet, but if you really think she is writing scripts and/ or directing camera crews for FOX Sports you need to seek mental health care immediately.
At the end of the day, Travis and Taylor are just two people with high profile jobs living their lives. It’s been determined that on average Taylor is shown on TV for around 25 seconds of each game she’s attended. For at game that lasts about 3 hours that’s a pretty small amount of time. Add that to maybe another 60 seconds max of lame comments from the announcers. If you can’t handle that 90 seconds maybe watching live sports just isn’t for you. But that’s your problem, not Taylor’s