“I can see you years from now in a bar, talkin’ over a football game// with that same big loud opinion, but nobody’s listening.” When singer, songwriter and global sensation Taylor Swift wrote those words almost 14 years ago in her hit song “Mean,” nobody could have guessed just how prophetic they would turn out to be. But here we are, in the year of our Lord 2024, with grown men complaining about how Swift is ruining football.
In case you haven’t heard, the “Style” singer has been dating Travis Kelce, who plays football for the Kansas City Chiefs as a tight end. Ever since she started attending Kelce’s games in September 2023, National Football League (NFL) fans have been throwing a fit. Jokes were even made about this at the Golden Globes, when comedian Jo Koy said, “The difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? We have less camera shots of Taylor Swift.” But the reality of it is that Swift isn’t even being shown all that much. According to an article from the New York Times, Swift is shown for an average of 25 seconds during an NFL game, which usually goes over 3 hours, and her name is rarely spoken.
Even though they aren’t showing Swift all that much, her effect on the NFL is evident; according to Al-Jazeera, football viewership among teenage girls has gone up 53%. Personally, I don’t think the NFL showing her is the problem, and they’re making a lot of money from it, so go them. Rather, the fault lies in the “Chads and Brads” who are blowing this whole thing way out of proportion. Swift is just trying to support her boyfriend; there’s nothing wrong with that. As Swift famously said in one of her songs, you need to calm down.
My call to action for you is twofold. First off, let people like what they like. It makes no sense to me that people are coming at Swift for attending her beau’s NFL games, or at Swifties who have become football fans and watch Chiefs games just to catch a glimpse of the star. Secondly, and this one is for the ladies, pay the haters no mind. We will have to deal with “Chads” and “Brads” our whole lives, so the best thing to do is just take Swift’s advice and shake it off.
