STEELE SPORTS
If you’ve tuned into the NFL slate over the past two weeks, chances are you’ve seen Taylor Swift dominating headlines in the league’s coverage.
Those who have been wondering why the music icon is suddenly so interested in the sport need dive no further into the dating drama of one Ms. Swift; I’ll give you the skinny.
Rumors allege that Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce have been dating – a notion that Swift’s attendance at the Chiefs’ previous two games seems to confirm.
While I’m not a huge fan of following athletes’ dating lives outside of the sport, this spur-of-the-moment story does have some intrigue.
Kelce is a beloved icon in the league both for his play on the field and his character off of it as well.
The two-time Super Bowl champion and eight-time Pro Bowl tight end is debatably the best tight end of all time and coupled with the fact that he and his brother Jason – currently the starting center for the Philadelphia Eagles – reach a large audience via their podcast “New Heights,” fans of the sport and even those outside of it have come to love the Kelces as pop-culture icons.
Enter Swift, stage left.
After Kelce made public comments courting Swift, the beloved singer was relatively quiet in terms of an answer.
That was until she was spotted attending his game against the Chicago Bears in week three of the NFL season.
From that point on she has become a staple at Chiefs’ games, and a massive media draw to herself, Kelce, and the NFL.
While the story of a professional athlete and another A-list celebrity dating surely isn’t anything new, what makes this story compelling is its timing and implications.
Swift’s sudden interest begs the question of whether this is all just an attention grab that will greatly benefit herself, Kelce, and the NFL in the short term.
I mean, what does she really have to lose in this instance?
Merging her life with an already uber-famous professional athlete seems like a no-brainer for someone like Swift, who has already enjoyed life in the limelight, but even if things go south, she still seems to benefit.
It’s no secret that a fair chunk of Swift’s songs deal with heartbreak and former relationships.
If her love story with Kelce were to end poorly, she would undoubtedly be able to shake it off with another album stacked with platinum hits for her die-hard fans.
Meanwhile, the NFL will benefit as long as she is in the stands and attracting “Swifties” who are more or less watching for the newest developments in Swift’s life.
Personally, I just hope we can get back to focusing on what’s important: the game itself.
But in the meantime, I guess I’ll have to get accustomed to watching the developments of the NFL’s newest love story.