All eyes were fixed on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” as the New York Jets faced off against the Kansas City Chiefs at MetLife Stadium. However, not everyone was tuning in for the football action.
In a surprising turn of events, Taylor Swift graced the crowd at the October 1st game in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Speculation had been rife about a potential romance between the pop superstar and Chiefs’ star tight end, Travis Kelce. Swift wasn’t alone; she was accompanied by a group of her famous friends, including Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Hugh Jackman.
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Swift’s appearance at an NFL game wasn’t a one-time occurrence either. Just last week, she was spotted in a suite at Arrowhead Stadium, watching the Chiefs triumph over the Chicago Bears alongside Kelce’s mother, Donna. Consequently, the anticipation was high to catch glimpses of her during this week’s broadcast.
Even the game announcers, Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth, couldn’t resist mentioning Swift. Towards the end of the third quarter, with the score deadlocked at 20-20, Tirico humorously shared that they had been discussing Taylor Swift’s lyrics and song titles earlier when the Chiefs were in the lead 17 to nothing. He lamented, “This game was 17 to nothing, and Cris and I were going over our Taylor Swift lyrics and song titles, and he was gonna talk about watching the documentary… Sorry Taylor, the game broke down in front of us.” The camera then panned to a subdued Swift in her suite. (Ultimately, the Chiefs emerged victorious with a score of 23-20.) Later on, the announcers commented on the fact that Swift and Kelce had left the previous week’s game in a convertible with the top down. The final count of cutaways to Taylor finished at 17 times.
Sideline reporter Melissa Stark added to the “Taylor effect” during the broadcast, highlighting that Travis had gained nearly 900,000 new Instagram followers in the past week, while sales of his jersey had spiked by a remarkable 400 percent at the Fanatics retail site.
Even the NFL itself joined in the excitement, sharing images of Taylor Swift at the game.
Interestingly, Swift, originally from Philadelphia, had revealed her allegiance to the Eagles during an earlier concert this year, leaving football fans with much to talk about.