Even Travis Kelce Thinks the NFL Is “Overdoing” The Taylor Swift Thing
With her Eras tour on pause, Taylor Swift is embarking on another tour of sorts—that is, to wherever her rumored romance and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce happes to be playing. Over the weekend, Swift attended another of Kelce’s game (her first outing came late last month) with her famous pals Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and Sophie Turner in tow.
And while the Chiefs did manage to scrape out a win against the Jets, all eyes were on Swift’s box in the stadium’s VIP suites. Broadcasts of the game were riddled with commercials starring Kelce and the NFL went as far as changing their Twitter and Instagram bios to Swift-themed captions after the team’s win. And while Kelce is reportedly “happy” about things with Swift, he had a message for the media’s outsized reaction to their potential fling.
On his New Heights podcast, the athlete was presented a question by his brother Jason—"Let's get to it, is the NFL overdoing it?," he asked, to which Travis responded, "I think it’s fun when they show who was at the game. It brings a little bit more to the atmosphere, brings a little bit more to what you’re watching. But at the same time, they’re overdoing it a little bit for sure, especially my situation.”
In addition to quoting Swift’s lyrics and changing their social media headers, the NFL broadcast Swift and co. 17 times, per Vox, with their coverage including promotion for her upcoming Eras tour film and snippets of her song “Welcome to New York.” Do they realize they were playing at MetLife Stadium which is in East Rutherford, New Jersey?
Though the tight end did give the league the benefit of the doubt, saying, “I think they’re just trying to have fun with it," it’s unlikely that they will slow down with their coverage of the fling as it progresses. The singer’s attendance on Sunday drew over two million new female viewers to the game with a whopping 27 million in total, making it the most-watched game since last year’s Super Bowl championship.
The coverage, admittedly, does feel excessive—especially given the fact that Swift hasn’t commented on things. Though, truly, traveling to New Jersey seems like something you’d only do for love.
Along with the league’s coverage, food companies have gone as far as to release ketchup and ranch condiments after a photo of Swift enjoying the dipping sauces went viral. Kelce’s jersey have seen a 400% spike, too. And sports broadcaster ESPN has come under a flurry of criticism from die-hard football for their content around the couple—“Nobody cares. Post football,” one user said, while another admitted, “Well its very clear that Taylor Swift is bigger than the NFL.”
And though he helped his team to a victory, Kelce admitted that a “few of them might’ve been there for Deadpool [stars Reynolds and Jackman] and Taylor." As the NFL proclaimed in one of their bio changes, things are on course to be “NFL (Taylor’s Version)”
