Love her or hate her, Taylor Swift keeps making headlines as she cheers on Travis Kelce
SACRAMENTO - Love her or hate her, she's the music sensation shakin' it off, not on stage. But during football games, Taylor Swift is making headlines that have nothing to do with her catchy tunes and people have a lot to say about it.
Never in our wildest dreams would we have thought Taylor Swift and football would be used in the same sentence so many times this year.
Pop queen Taylor Swift is trading her glitter and heels for jerseys and sweatshirts. She's stepping off the red carpet and into a football suite, cheering on boyfriend and Kansas City Chief's superstar tight end Travis Kelce.
A lot has changed since Swift attended her first game, on September 24th, but one thing remains the same: the vastly different reactions to her newfound football connection.
"I'm going for the Chiefs because of Taylor Swift," said Taylor Swift fan Hector Flores.
"It has nothing to do with football whatsoever," said Douglas Dillard.
Some are enchanted by the love story while others are not afraid to say there's bad blood.
"I think the NFL is alienating the fans of the NFL by selling their soul to a pop artist," Dillard said.
"She brings joy to the NFL fan base," Flores said. "Overall I think it's a great thing for the sport."
Regardless of how you feel about the topic, her presence is certainly seen in the social media clicks with keyword searches for the couple skyrocketing.
Nielsen Media Research shows since Swift attended her first game, an additional two million women are tuning in each week to watch the Kansas City Chiefs.
"I wouldn't be teaching this course if I didn't consider myself something of a Swifty," Dr. Stephanie Burt said.
Dr. Burt is a Harvard professor teaching one of the nation's first courses on the cruel summer singer, "Taylor Swift and Her Cruel World."
While her art usually imitates her life, the course also explores other influences on her songwriting.
"Such as the work of Dolly Parton, such as Prince and Beyonce, such as lesser-known gems of pop songwriting, Scott Miller, for example, from Sacramento and Davis," Dr. Burt said. "Taylor is used to having to fight to be taken seriously."
It's not everyone's wildest dream to see more of her, but on average, Swift is shown for less than 30 seconds during a typical three-hour-plus football game.
"It is interesting to me to see how this male-dominated space, which is NFL fandom, reacts to having this extraordinarily powerful woman be unavoidable," Dr. Burt said.
Unavoidable attraction or Swiftie fandom over-reaction? You decide.
