“It’s me, hi! I’m the problem, it’s me!”
These are the lyrics from the chorus of “Anti-Hero”, a hit song by pop superstar Taylor Swift.
In the past few months Swift has been dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. You have probably seen Taylor at Travis’ games, or Travis at Taylor’s concerts. However, this love story has many people being annoyed at Taylor and the NFL, as they have shown Taylor quite a lot during Chiefs games. There has been a good deal of unneeded coverage of her at the games, and some NFL fans are over it. Many Taylor Swift fans have also become Chiefs “fans” since she started dating the All-Pro Tight End. Likewise, Taylor Swift fans have turned into huge Travis Kelce fans, or as they call him “Taylor’s Boyfriend.”
The relationship between Travis and Taylor has sparked a lot of controversy between NFL fans and Taylor Swift fans. Many NFL fans are annoyed at the fact that someone who has nothing to do with football is getting all this screen time. NFL fans want the NFL to focus on football, not on random celebrities. Some NFL fans even believe that the league was “scripted” to get Taylor Swift to the Super Bowl to increase viewership. This is most likely a false theory, as the NFL could have just booked her to perform at the halftime show.
Let’s go to the stats of this star-studded relationship. The Chiefs are 9-3 when Taylor Swift is in attendance. Travis Kelce has 80 catches for 946 yards and 5 touchdowns while averaging 11.8 yards per reception in those 11 games. In games where Taylor isn’t in attendance, Kelce hasn’t gone over 100 yards.
Swift also happens to have a subtle reference to the Chiefs on her album Lover, which was released in 2019 long before she was dating Kelce. In her song “Cornelia Street”, Swift sings:
As if the streetlights pointed in an arrowhead
Leading us home
The reference to the Chiefs is that they play their home games at “GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium”. Was this foreshadowing? Is Taylor the key to the Chiefs’ success? No, but it’s fun to think about
On Super Bowl Sunday, there was a notification sent out by ESPN announcing that Taylor Swift had arrived to the Super Bowl. Taylor was posted on every sports media outlet, more than some of the players. NFL fans took to social media to express how they felt about the posting of Taylor Swift. Some fans want 49ers Quarterback Brock Purdy to beat the Chiefs and put an end to the Taylor Swift coverage. First, fans wanted Lamar Jackson to beat the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game, but when he came up short, they next looked for Brock Purdy to be their hero. (Or shall we say Anti-hero?)
In dealing with all of the hype and the haters Travis and the Chiefs have been able to “Shake it off” and win their second consecutive Super Bowl. Can they win three in a row? Is Taylor the key to the Chiefs’ success? Nobody knows for sure, but what we do know is that Travis is happy, which makes the Chiefs better.
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