There is no doubt that Taylor Swift was the star of this year's Super Bowl, no offence to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. However, the superstar singer is now being accused of pulling some strings in order to remove rapper Kanye West from where he wanted to sit during the game.
What did Swift allegedly do to her long-time nemesis?
Let's start with the source of the accusations. Former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall took to his podcast titled "Paper Route" to claim that Kanye had been planning on raining on Swift's parade during Super Bowl LVIII. Leading up to the highly-anticipated match, fans from around the world were already buzzing about whether or not the singer will make it to the game after her "Eras Tour" concert in Tokyo on February 10.
JUST IN: Former NFL receiver Brandon Marshall claims Taylor Swift got Kanye West kicked out of the Super Bowl.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 13, 2024
Wild if true.
The comments were made by Marshall on the @IAMATHLETEpod podcast.
Kanye allegedly purposely purchased seats right in front of Taylor Swift so every time... pic.twitter.com/Dc2eR5YDqM
If she makes it, which we now know she did, then it was also widely expected that cameras would be tracking her every move. Marshall said that West wanted to upstage the singer and bought tickets that would put him directly in front of her at the Allegiant Stadium. That means that every time a camera would capture her reactions, then Kanye would be "photobombing" the scene.
Allegedly, Swift found out about this and made some calls to make sure that West was removed from the seat. It has to be noted that Kanye and his wife Bianca Censori were spotted at the Super Bowl, but they were not anywhere near Swift and her suite.
Swift has not commented on the accusations, but a representative for Kanye has reached out to TMZ to say: "This is a completely fabricated rumor. It is not true."
Could Taylor Swift remove West from the stadium?
Some theories suggest that Kanye may have been trying to leverage Swift's current notoriety due to her romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Kanye could have easily purchased the seats that he wanted inside the stadium, and it may have even been possible for him to find out where Swift would be expected to sit because she would be in one of the VIP suites.
What isn't proven is whether he would go to such lengths to reignite his feud with Swift. In any case, his team has already stated that the whole thing is a rumour.
If he had in fact tried to photobomb Swift, would she have been able to do anything about it? If the rapper had paid for his seats, the NFL may have a very hard time getting him to move. However, the league also knows that she is a huge PR and marketing asset, and they would want to keep her happy. After all, her influence is being seen as a major factor in the Super Bowl's record-breaking ratings this year.
Nevertheless, she would have needed to prove that there is some level of danger involved so as to justify having a paying customer moved out of his seat. The NFL, however, would want to avoid any kind of conflict and PR nightmare.
Everything went without a hitch
Despite the allegations, the Super Bowl went without a hitch for the two celebrities. Swift enjoyed the match with her friends and family, and sealed the victory with a kiss after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime.
She had plenty of airtime as expected, and she and Kelce had their moment when they embraced and kissed in front of cameras during the celebrations.
Meanwhile, Kanye also had his moment. The rapper attended the event wearing his signature black hosiery mask covering his face, with another black mask over it that featured a white Jesus silhouette.
He also appeared on screen thanks to a 30-second spot that he bought to promote his Yeezy brand. The ad caught a lot of attention because he spent literally nothing on it. After spending US$7million on the spot, he claimed that he did not want to spend on producing the ad himself. Instead, he filmed himself on his iPhone, saying: "Hey y'all, this is Ye, and this is my commercial. And since we spent all the money on the commercial spot, we actually – we didn't spend any money on the actual commercial. But the idea is I want you to go to Yeezy.com."
He added: "I'm gonna write it at the bottom of the screen and I got some shoes and mmmm that's it."
According to unconfirmed reports on social media, the rapper was able to rake in a whopping $19.3million in sales thanks to the low-budget spot.
Kanye West spent $7m on a Super Bowl commercial but $0 on the production and filmed it from his phone instead pic.twitter.com/c0dvx9Hmsp
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) February 13, 2024
