Taylor Swift’s fans rushed to her defence after a sports columnist suggested she was to blame for her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s loss on the football field.
The singer spent her Christmas Day watching Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs take on the Las Vegas Raiders - with the latter team taking home a win of 20-14.
Following the game, sports columnist and commentator Skip Bayless took to X/Twitter to explain that he viewed the singer as a reason for the loss, calling her a “distraction.”
“Feels like it’s about time to call Taylor Swift a distraction,” his tweet read. “What do you think, Patrick? Andy? How about you, Travis?”
Throughout the game, whenever Kelce made a catch or the Chiefs scored a touchdown, the camera would pan over to the Grammy winner - which tends to happen every time she is in attendance at a game.
However, following Bayless’ post on social media many of the singer’s fans responded in outrage over how someone who wasn’t a player or coach could be blamed for the team’s loss.
“Last time I checked Taylor Swift wasn’t playing for the Chiefs,” one tweet began in defence of Swift. “That’s like calling out and Blaming the Chiefs poor performance on Britney Mahomes and his Little brother Jackson. It’s an Absolutely ridiculous and pathetic excuse.”
Another response agreed, writing, “I didn’t know Taylor Swift plays wide receiver for the Chiefs.”
“Taylor Swift doesn’t play WR. This is about accountability and looking into the mirror on Kansas City’s end. Blaming Swift is a cop-out,” a third person responded to Bayless’ tweet.
Other commenters viewed the commentator’s post as an insult to women in general. “Shocking. A man blaming a woman for another man’s problems. What an original take. You’re better than this, Skip. You really are. C’mon now,” one response read.
“Ridiculous take. Did the Cowboys lose because their wives or gf are a distraction?” another X user commented under the post.
This isn’t the first time Swift has received backlash from attending one of her boyfriend’s football games. On 17 December, the singer’s father, Scott Swift, accompanied his daughter to the Chiefs-Patriots game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. There, Swift was met with an upset crowd. The “Anti-Hero” artist was booed by New England fans as she watched the match next to her father.
Kelce addressed the fan behaviour in the most recent episode of his eponymous podcast with Jason, New Heights.
“I’ll say this - they showed Taylor at the game,” he said to Jason, 36. “And I mean, you don’t see an entire home team fan base go insane for somebody wearing the opposite team’s colours. Just shows you how amazing that girl is. They went absolutely insane when they showed Taylor on the screen, yes.”
As for New England’s reaction to her presence, the NFL tight end noted how the negativity most likely stemmed from a devotion to their home team rather than having to do with the Eras Tour frontwoman.
Kelce used Swift’s rhetoric from her recent interview with Time Magazine to characterise the situation. “There might have been a few Brads and Chads that were booing but, for the most part, everybody was f***ing screaming their tail off for her.”
“I was trying to keep it cool,” the NFL player continued. “I was like, ‘Don’t show your cards, don’t show your cards.’ It was fun, man. Taylor’s on record saying that stadium’s one of the funnest that she played at, so for them to show her is kind of just showing her some love, so shout out to the Patriots for doing that.”
