The NFL may seem like it’s turning into the Taylor Swift show, with football taking a backseat. However, iconic sports broadcaster Al Michaels will have a chance to commentate on an NFL game that’s garnered significant attention due to the budding “Traylor” romance between Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and superstar singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.
But it appears that the voice of “Thursday Night Football” doesn’t intend to make a significant fuss about this fall’s most notable celebrity relationship during the broadcast.
“What we’re gonna do tonight, everything in moderation,” Michaels told Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated on Thursday morning. “Our crew talked about it this morning. You can’t make a sideshow the show. The vast majority of the audience are tuning in to watch a football game. There are people, I don’t know how many, it could be a sizable number, but it’s certainly not a majority, that if you trained the camera on her all night long, they’d be satisfied with that. This is not what we’re doing to do.”
Kelce expressed his opinion last week, suggesting that the league’s coverage of his and Swift’s relationship might be a bit excessive.
According to a report from the New York Post, during Kansas City’s Week 4 win over the New York Jets on “Sunday Night Football,” NBC cameras panned to the 12-time Grammy Award-winner in the suite at MetLife Stadium a total of 17 times.
The NFL made headlines earlier this month when it updated its banner photo on X (formerly known as Twitter) to feature three images of Swift cheering during the “SNF” game. The league also adjusted its bio on X to read “We had the best day with you today.”
The NFL faced criticism after briefly altering its Instagram bio to read “Chiefs are 2-0 as swifties,” before promptly reverting to its original wording.
In response to the New York Post, the NFL explained that they frequently change their bios and profile imagery to reflect the current events in and around the games, as well as the cultural context.
“There might be an appropriate shot or a couple. I don’t know what the number is going to be. If Kelce scores six touchdowns, who the hell knows what we’re going to do,” Michaels said. “But for the most part, just in moderation. The game is still the important element here, by far. That’s our thought. After that, you sort of make it, one of my favorite words, farcical.”
The 78-year-old admitted to Traina that he didn’t “necessarily” have a favorite song by Swift, but his granddaughter and her friends are “completely obsessed.”
“They went to a Taylor Swift concert in L.A., and they prepared for it for a month,” he said.
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The “Anti-Hero” songstress initially sent the internet into a frenzy with her September appearance at Arrowhead Stadium during the Chiefs’ Week 3 matchup against the Chicago Bears. Swift was captured sitting in a stadium suite alongside Donna Kelce, the mother of Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce, who plays as a center for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Despite attending the Week 4 victory of the Kansas City Chiefs over the New York Jets, Swift was noticeably absent when the Chiefs secured their win against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 5 at U.S. Bank Stadium.
