Taylor Swift mania has officially taken over the NFL.
Ever since the pop superstar was first linked to star Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, you can’t read a story about the NFL without Taylor Swift’s name popping up.
And when Taylor showed up at Arrowhead Stadium for the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Chicago Bears, sitting in a box with Kelce’s family, the internet went absolutely insane.
The result was over a 1200% increase in sales of Kelce’s jersey, pushing him past even star Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, as well as an increase of over 300,000 followers for Kelce on social media.
This past weekend, she attended the game in New York City with a star-studded crew as the Chiefs took on the Jets in what actually ended up being a really good game, and NBC took full advanatage of her star power, showing Swift in the box no less than 17 times.
They also said it was the most streamed regular season game ever, so yeah, they’re milking it for all it’s worth, and while I’ll be honest and say I’m already tired of it, I can’t really blame them, either.
And today, on a new episode of their New Heights podcast (which is also up in viewership on Youtube and downloads on streaming, obviously), Travis’ brother Jason asked him the question I was definitely wanting an answer for:
“Is the NFL overdoing it? What is your honest opinion? Take away your feelings for Taylor, what is your honest opinion on how the NFL is treating celebrities at games?”
To which Travis delivered a very diplomatic, yet honest, answer, saying that it can be fun to see who’s there once or twice, they’re definitely “overdoing it… especially my situation”:
“I think it’s fun when they show who all is at the game, you know? I think it brings a little bit more to the atmosphere, brings a little more to what you’re watching.
But at the same time I think they’re overdoing it a little bit for sure, especially my situation. I think they’re just trying to have fun with it.”
Jason then delivered some great analysis of how the NFL should probably be handling everything, adding:
“I just think the NFL isn’t used to celebrities coming to games. Basketball has it figured out, they’re all court-side, they’re all sitting there, they show them once or twice, but then they get back to the game.
The NFL is like, ‘Look at all these A-list celebrities at the game! Keep showing them! Show them, show them!’
Dude listen, you show them once, let them know they’re there, maybe after a touchdown you get a little clip. But you can’t be overboard with it. People are there to watch the game, right?”
Jason also ribbed Travis for the fact that, when they weren’t showing him on the field or talking about his relationship with Taylor Swift, every other commercial just about featured Travis (look at you, Mr. Pfizer), which was really funny.
Travis let him know there might even be a couple other commercials more on the way before the season’s over…
They also discussed the record viewership for a regular season game, which totaled 27 million, in addition to saying the NFL reported over two million female viewers, though I agree with them in that I have no idea how you would calculate that number from a TV, but I digress…
You can watch the full podcast episode below, and the Taylor talk starts around the 1:06 mark:
