In the words of…well, Taylor Swift, haters gonna hate.
Ever since the pop superstar made her first appearance at a Kansas City Chiefs game supporting her new boyfriend, star tight end Travis Kelce, you can’t turn on an NFL game – much less a Chiefs game – without hearing about Taylor Swift.
And there’s a good reason for that: She’s provided a huge boost to the NFL’s ratings, and shot Kelce to the top of NFL jersey sales while increasing his social media following by hundreds of thousands.
So, naturally the NFL wants to capitalize on the attention – even if it annoys some of its fans.
During one game that she attended, Taylor was shown on screen 17 times, which isn’t even counting the commercials for her Eras Tour movie that the NFL reportedly asked networks to promote for free.
Even Kelce admitted at one point that the networks were overdoing it with their coverage of Taylor (although he just may be sick of having other people talk about his own relationship).
“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.”
But what does Taylor think about all of the coverage – and the fans who are annoyed that she’s taken over their NFL game days?
Well apparently she doesn’t think too much about it at all.
During an interview with TIME after being named Person of the Year for 2023, Taylor said she doesn’t really know when she’s being shown on TV:
“I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in. There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once.”
But she doesn’t sound like she really cares too much if fans think the NFL is overdoing it:
“I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”
And Taylor says that she’s actually gotten into football now that she’s started paying attention to the sport:
“Football is awesome, it turns out. I’ve been missing out my whole life.”
Yes, Taylor, football is awesome.
But sometimes it would be nice if they were actually talking about…well, football during the broadcast.
