NFL Defends Coverage of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Romance

With Taylor Swift appearing at the last two Kansas City Chiefs games to support her rumored boyfriend Travis Kelce, the NFL has taken heat for its coverage of the 12-time Grammy Award-winner. This past Sunday, NBC showed Swift 17 times during the game between the Chiefs and the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football. And when the Chiefs won the game, the NFL changed its Instagram bio to read ‘The [Chiefs] are now 2-0 with [Taylor Swift] in attendance. 

On Wednesday, the NFL released a statement defending its coverage of Swift. “We frequently change our bios and profile imagery based on what’s happening in and around our games, as well as culturally. The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news has been a pop cultural moment we’ve leaned into in real time, as it’s an intersection of sport and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport,” the statement said, per Entertainment Tonight. “The vast majority of our content has remained focused on the game, our players and variety of other initiatives, including our Toy Story Funday Football alt-cast, the international games and more.”  

On the New Heights podcast, Kelce called out the NFL for the constant coverage of Swift. When he learned that the “Shake it Off” singer was shown 17 times on Sunday, Kelce said, “Damn, that’s crazy. That’s like once a drive. Mom told me everyone was enjoying themselves. …They are not there to get thrown on the TV. You never know you get caught throwing down a big old cheeseburger and you look like an idiot. There are certain things you just don’t want to be on TV at all times.”

On Sunday, Swift was joined by other notable figures, including Sophie Turner, Blake Lively, Robyn Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Sabrina Carpenter, and Antoni Porowski. Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, also watched the game with Swift in the suite after going out to dinner with the pop star and her friends on Saturday night. 

The NFL is focused on Swift during the games because of viewership. It was announced that an average of 27 million people watched the Sunday Night Football game, topping off at 29 million in the second quarter. NBC said it’s the most-watched Sunday show since the Super Bowl in February.