Chances are, if you turn on your TV to watch a Chiefs game, within the first 10 minutes you’ll see a shot of Taylor Swift. When she went public with the star tight end Travis Kelce and started attending his games, there were mixed emotions from the viewers and fans of either. Scrolling through a comment section on a post about the two together, you’ll see comments ranging from “Aw! I hope they’re happy together!” to lots of vulgar, R-rated combinations with the basic trend of “Nobody cares”.
When I interviewed students from OA, I asked a swiftie, a football player and NFL lover, and someone who’s impartial to both to see what the general opinion about this was. When asked what their thoughts were, the gist of all 3 was that they don’t really care. They’re both just people with extraordinary talents that got them famous, why does it matter what they do? However, the undertones of all three answers were that it’s beneficial for both groups. Lucas F. thinks that “it gives more publicity to Swift and Kelce, all of the Swift fans are watching the NFL games hoping to see her on the TV, and the Kelce fans are listening to her music to get acquainted with the other side. However, I am pretty sick of it. Elimane D. disagrees with him. When asked if he cares about her being on screen a lot, he says, “not really,”.
While someone will argue that one put the other “on the map”, they’re both extremely talented to begin with. However, since Swift has started showing her face at games, Kelce’s jersey sales have gone up 400%, and the NFL has reached a demographic they’ve been attempting to win over for years. Swift also overtook Bad Bunny as the #1 artist of the year on Spotify. So really, why do people hate it? They seem happy, they’re adorable, and it’s benefiting both peoples careers. So what’s the problem? According to Olivia S., “Two passions that don’t tend to like each other are mixing and people are finding reasons to argue,”.
The amount of Backlash Swift has received from just being there is crazy, and the accusations she’s facing are almost worse. Some think she’s an agent of the Pentagon, and others think that instead of a superbowl halftime show, we’ll be getting a vaxxine ad from her and Kelce. There’s also been AI images produced and posted on social media of her that have essentially banned the search of her name on Twitter so nobody sees. According to New York Times, she’s actually shown for less than 25 seconds during a roughly 3-hour broadcast.
Personally, I love to watch football, and Taylor Swift is easily my favorite artist. I have no problem with it, because it’s none of my business. “They’re getting hate for it which can ruin the relationship,” says Bethany M., an impartial student. She is completely right, and it shouldn’t be that way. After all, they’re just two normal people who were blessed with talents. Why shouldn’t they be able to do what they want? Who knows? When The Chiefs play in the superbowl, maybe we’ll get an amazing surprise halftime show from Ms. Swift herself!