Is it even possible to “focus on football” while Taylor Swift is around?
Taylor Swift's romance with Travis Kelce is a major cash cow, and everyone is making money
Aux News football
By now you’ve probably heard that Taylor Swift attended another football game. Already nearly impossible to ignore on her own, Swift’s partnership with the NFL—or, um, with Travis Kelce—has reached heretofore unthinkable levels of stratospheric fame. Last week, she posed next to a couple of condiments and had brands tripping over themselves to market “seemingly ranch.” This week, she became a champion for divorceés everywhere by including both Sophie Turner and Hugh Jackman in her suite squad for the Jets/Chiefs game. Who cares about what’s happening on the field when Taylor Swift is up in the stands?
Unsurprisingly, the Kansas City Chiefs organization cares, and it would like to “keep the focus on football,” according to a source for CBS Sports. This is a big team of defending Super Bowl champions, and despite the ongoing wins, the whirlwind Swift romance storyline pulls focus from the fact that they’re, well, defending Super Bowl champions. Just look at the TikTok trend of people asking football fans how they feel about “Taylor Swift putting Travis Kelce on the map.” (Kelce, for one, has a sense of humor about it.)
The NFL is also cognizant that “We don’t want to get to a place where we’re turning off our most avid fans,” as its SVP of Social, Influencer & Content Marketing Ian Trombetta told CBS Sports. But while Trombetta says the NFL won’t risk “over commercializing” the relationship, the NFL has nevertheless quite literally commercialized the relationship. An ad for Sunday Night Football ahead of the Chiefs/Jets showdown featured Swift’s song “Welcome To New York,” with the social media tagline “Taylor Made for Sunday Night.”
Then there’s the game itself, which featured plenty of cutaways up to Swift’s suite with her famous friends, and lots of Swiftie references from commentators. The league made its official X/Twitter header image reaction shots of the singer at the game, and changed its bio to “we had the best day with you today,” a nod to a lyric off the Fearless album.
The league may be wary of alienating hardcore football fans who find the pop star’s presence a distraction, but it obviously can’t resist courting a new demographic. The first game Swift attended saw a 63% spike in women viewers aged 18-49, per Front Office Sports. And while Trombetta boasted of the league’s “almost 50%” female fanbase to CBS Sports, he admitted that Gen Z is an “elusive demographic” in an interview with USA Today. “We’ve been really leaning in and reaching out to more casual audiences, or people who are not watching football every single moment or watching every week,” he said. “We’re finding adjacencies in music, gaming, and fashion.”
Swift, whose economic impact is undeniable, is a very tantalizing adjacency. Plus, she already had a well-established partnership with the NFL before Travis Kelce came along. She previously made key album announcements during NFL programs, including broadcasting a Midnights teaser during Thursday Night Football or announcing the first single off of Lover during the NFL Draft. Sunday night’s Chiefs/Jets game featured an ad for The Eras Tour concert film, which is already projected to smash ticket records.
So Swift and the NFL clearly have something of a symbiotic relationship, but there are obviously benefits for Travis Kelce, too. His jersey sales have spiked; his social media following ballooned; and his podcast with brother Jason Kelce, who plays for the Eagles, rocketed to #1 on Apple’s charts. The athlete had his own commercials for Experian debit cards, the Pfizer COVID vaccine, and State Farm run during Sunday night’s game, and continued association with Swift is likely to boost his profile further. Case in point: Kelce’s mother Donna watched the Eagles game with “Jake from State Farm,” a stunt E! News reports was
“orchestrated Taylor’s friend Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort production company.” “Jake” posted a selfie with Donna proclaiming to be in his “red era” (a reference to Swift’s album). Meanwhile, Donna departed Philadelphia to join Swift and Reynolds in their suite at the New York game.
Spectators can debate whether Swift and Kelce’s relationship is genuine or a public relations concoction, but there’s no denying that a lot of people have profited from it in the two weeks since this story began. Trombetta says the NFL will stop short of being “stationed outside of Taylor’s house trying to get photos and things like that,” but somebody sold pictures of Kelce supposedly leaving Swift’s apartment on Sunday morning—despite somehow also adhering to his team’s strict 11 PM Saturday night curfew, per a Page Six source.
“It’s really authentic,” Trombetta claimed of the Swift/Kelce phenomenon in his chat with CBS Sports. “You can tell the Swift fans they really care about her. And it’s amazing. And I would say the same thing for our fans. They really, really care deeply about the game and about the players. You combine those two things together, it results in this explosion of coverage and excitement and speculation. So we’ll see where this goes.”
To USA Today, Trombetta added: “She’s invited to any game that she wants to come to. It’s an open invitation.”
62 Comments
Yes.
No Taylor Swift News Today
Is this how it felt when Marilyn Monroe dated Dimaggio? I think the whole thing is fun. I hope they are having a good time.
It’s more like what happened when she married Arthur Miller. The “Mill-Heads”, as they were known, went crazy for her!
Ya know, if the two of them are in love and happy, then that’s what’s good here.If Taylor Swift develops the ability to expertly analyze games and can relate it to a crowd, that’d be quite the bonus!
I think I’d rather trust the chicken.
well if they are actually in love, i’m betting all this attention will ruin that real quick.
Maybe. Taylor, at least, has dealt with this level of attention for quite some time now. Kelce has been at least somewhat famous for awhile too. They may have avenues to keep the fame from wrecking their relationship.
Man, this is all going to end so badly for the NFL. I’m sure it’s great to have Swifties on your side, but hell hath no fury like a Swiftie scorned. At least their “relationship” looks to be about as orchestrated as the NFL’s efforts to help the Chiefs win at every opportunity, so when it inevitably “ends” hopefully Queen Taylor can tell her army to show mercy.
If Travis Kelce gets injured, God help the defender, whether it was a legal hit or not.
I never understand 1) sports fans who *know* the sport is rigged and still care
2) why a league like the NFL would rig things for … 34th largest media market, Kansas City
1) I think I’m just pretty over the NFL. I told myself I’d stop watching last season after they nearly killed a player on field last year, but here I am, back at it. So call it a bad habit at this point. 2) The Chiefs are the reigning Super Bowl champs, they have a dynasty, they’re constantly on Sunday Night Football, their players (and coach!) are in national ads for insurance that sponsor games (and stadiums), they’re in the Top 10 most searched/supported for teams online, and that was all before this T Swift nonsense. The Chiefs winning is good for the NFL. I’m sure they’re not rigging it; that’d be absurd, naturally. But they sure don’t make it easy to convice you otherwise with some of the egregiously botched calls, as well as the constant glazing from announcers.
I mean, “they” didn’t do jack squat regarding a player having a cardiac event. And, even if “they” orchestrated contact in what is billed to and understood by the players that make millions in it as a contact sport, then maybe don’t hang your entire career on a sport that carries more risk than reward? I wouldn’t choose to be a firefighter if I didn’t understand that I’d have to… run into fires.And no, the NFL absolutely does not care about Swifties in relation to KC, and this comes from a person who worked for an organization with a far larger commercial presence and a more decorated QB who at the time had a partner with a rabid fan base and far higher net worth than him. It don’t work that way.
Are you one of those people who are all about how she’s secretly gay so this relationship has to be fake?Because while I’m not gonna say it’s impossible, I will say that Travis Kelce of all people is a hell of a weird pick for your cover.
Haha no, I just think most of everything she does is marketing, so I don’t terribly buy it.
Very fair.
For those of us who aren’t American and know nothing about American football, why is it a weird pick just out of interest?
Kelce would be a strange pick for what is known as a beard, i.e. someone to provide cover for a person’s homosexuality. Usually a beard is a lower profile person, and sometimes not even fully aware of their role. It’s uncommon for a beard to someone who could have their choice of desirable partners.
Oh I didn’t mean from a football fan’s perspective or anything, I just meant that a lot of actors/musicians/famous people in general date inside that pool of famous people, so a QB out of Kansas City is really outside the norm. (Even though I guess he is a good QB so he’s famous in his particular field)
This is going to be the best Taylor “fuck you!” song ever. Just a whole new vein of material to mine.
Well at the moment the Swift army is getting its daggers out for the Republican Party so the NFL is okay… for now.
While the downside of a broken relationship is definitely trouble for the NFL, I’m thinking that what is worse is the temporary surge of interest by Taylor fans who will walk away in an instant once she’s no longer connected to the NFL. This has happened repeatedly to clothing manufacturers that have a huge surge in sales when the brand becomes hip. The hipness passes overnight, but the brand has already suffered with its usual base of customers.
That’s exactly it. I doubt the retention rate for Swifties that will continue to watch the NFL after this all ends will be close to zero.
“Knock off all the ‘grab-ass’, Chang!”
Yes Coach, I’ll rub some dirt on it and keep playing!
“Was that the ‘White Jake’ or the ‘Black Jake’?”
Pod Six was jerks!
Once again…you’ve KILLED us!
What if it was White Jake’s brain….in a robot body?
“Look man, you’re missing the point. What if everyone called you ‘White Hank’?”
Without Fat Joey, Skinny Joey is just [sighs] ‘Joey.’
And that is a goddamn tragedy.
That would be hard cheese (for a hard journey).
We don’t need some girl gukkin’ up our beloved football with ‘er cooties!
B-R-R-EAKDOWN!
Are Swifties actually interested in the game of football, or just interested in seeing TayTay seemingly paying attention to the game?Much as I’d like to discourage a network of seemingly unhealthy parasocial relationships, the Swifties I see on Twitter would prefer a 3-hour Taylor cam as a companion broadcast to the actual game on the field. Kind of like the Manning-cast on Monday nights, but with even less attention to the game.That being said, I would totally welcome Taylor being an invited guest on a Manning cast for MNF, because that would be fascinating.
That being said, I would totally welcome Taylor being an invited guest on a Manning cast for MNF, because that would be fascinating. That sounds legit terrible. I do not believe anyone, man, woman or child, is interested in hearing TS speak about football.
Agree to disagree. I’d love to hear Peyton ask her to call the next play….just to see what would happen:- “Throw it to Kelce. Duh.”- “Bubble screen to my guy.”- “The other team is showing a lot of Cover-2 looks, so it might be time to hit a deep post, over the mike.”If you really want the Swifties to get into the game of football, have Taylor prepped to talk X’s and O’s. Don’t care how scripted it is; imagine the Swifties trying to learn football concepts instead of trying to read her lips from when she was last on camera.
Then at the end of the season, the NFL is stuck dealing with Swifties going nuts because the refs missed a PI call on Kelce in the AFC Championship and the Superbowl ratings tank.
Again, this is nightmare fuel.
– “Throw it to Kelce. Duh.”- “Bubble screen to my guy.”- “The other team is showing a lot of Cover-2 looks, so it might be time to hit a deep post, over the mike.”I assume you think those would be amusing. they would not be. Eye roll inducing head trauma more like it.
Read her lips?!
I think they should just do something totally surreal like have Swift say a few things that make it sound like she has deep football knowledge (whether she does or not), then look at her phone and say, “Oh shit, I gotta go, Hugh Jackman is outside and I need to kick his ass” and then she just runs out of the room.
Have you watched the Manningcast? They bring on a lot of random celebrities, many of whom are not football experts. Their show is focused more on entertainment than traditional analysis / commentating.
Ha! I love it
Its an upgrade from that time Gronkowski showed up in that terrible Katy Perry music video for some reason.
“Are Swifties actually interested in the game of football”By and large no. And I suspect actual football fans are a little miffed at how much coverage she is getting vs the game.
Taylor Swift’s romance with Travis Kelce is a major cash cow, and everyone is making moneyLol, you got that right and though I find the attention kind of cringey, I find the host and announcers to be even more so, but I’m always amused by the right wing talking heads ability to do their damnedest to somehow find a tie in to a pop culture trend for them to latch on to. Fortunately for them, Kelce’s Pfizer vaccine and Bud Light commercials gets him in, but it’s Taylor’s more devastating, pearl clutching voter registration efforts that has them all up in their fee-fee’s and throwing a manufactured outraged fit.
Is it even possible to “focus on football” while Taylor Swift is around?Yes.
I mean, if I was trying to focus on football and Taylor Swift showed up trying to distract me, I’d probably ask how she got into my house.
So you’re saying you aren’t ready for some football?
It’s only possible to think about tennis, dodgeball, bocce, and cricket with Taylor Swift around. Science has been baffled by this phenomenon for decades.
I don’t care about either, but it’s nearly impossible to avoid it.Why does everything have to be so extra?
The networks are embarrassing themselves.
We had to deal with Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo, but this on another level. I don’t mind it, but I generally don’t with these sorts of things. It’s whatever. It’s cute. The only part that’s been a little cringy is being inundated with all the broadcast commentators’ Taylor Swift puns. Don’t know if I can endure this many old people trying to be hip and funny
Look what you made me do…
I knew you were trouble
Every single talking head making the same bad jokes using Swift song titles is fucking annoying.
“Keep the focus on football”.So, in other words, stick to sports?
So lizzo just got a humanitarian award though she has several allegations against her for un-humanitarian-like behaviors and has yet to see court, that seems more interesting then Swift and her 1,000,000th inspiration for a breakup song.