Swift is sport’s biggest star
It’s her league, we’re all just watching.
After turning up to MetLife Sunday night with her A-list squad to cheer on beau Travis Kelce as his Chiefs played the struggling Jets, it’s official: Taylor Swift is the NFL’s new overlord.
Until a few minutes ago, juicy off-field romances were relegated to the gossip pages and fodder for the clever sports Twitterati (or Xerati, I guess). But they were rarely dignified by the hardcore gridiron media poobahs and broadcasters.
Enter the 33-year-old cultural sensation.
Since the red-lipstick wearing superstar attended last week’s game at Arrowhead, sitting with Kelce’s mother Donna, all pandemonium has broken loose in the National Football League.
Bill Belichick, a known Swiftie and also a known curmudgeon, deemed it worthy of his input, remarking that the tight end has had “a lot of big catches in his career. This would be his biggest.”
All week, the “Shake It Off” singer led tons of week three post-mortem coverage with Erin Andrews admitting to freaking out on her arrival in Arrowhead. And normally serious sports journos were jockeying for any Swift scoop.
Not all was glowing. It sent the ever-apoplectic “First Take” personality Chris “Mad Dog” Russo into one of his trademark tirades, with him saying Mama Kelce didn’t want Swift there, adding “Enough already. All Fox cared about Sunday was showing Taylor in the booth…Let me watch the football.”
But as far as NFL and the broadcasters are concerned, naysayers be damned. Last night’s Sunday Night Football on NBC felt like T Swift with a side of pigskin.
After all, news of her mere presence turned what would have been a forgettable match-up with the Aaron Rodgers-less Jets, into the hottest ticket of the season thus far.
For days, the network had been teasing the game with Swift’s hit, “Welcome to New York” and the New York Times ran a piece looking into how the network prepared, specifically, to cater to the new, pop-obsessed, audience.