Taylor Swift is catching heat for hogging the NFL limelight – and it’s got her feeling guilty and awkward while her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, frantically tries to do damage control with his Kansas City Chiefs teammates.
“It’s only natural the NFL wants her in this promo, she’s bringing in so many fans and this is a business, of course they want to use her to promote. But there are some people in the organization that are grumbling that it takes away from the team, and obviously the die-hard fans aren’t too happy either and they’re making their voices heard, which makes Taylor feel uneasy,” a source exclusively tells Life & Style.
“She doesn’t want to upset anybody in any way, she’s just a very excited and supportive girlfriend and when the NFL approached her, she didn’t think twice about lending her support,” the insider continues about the pop superstar, 34.
Before the 2024 NFL season opener between the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens, the league ran a 30-second promo featuring four different clips of Taylor cheering Travis on during games in the previous season, interspersed with other 2023 game highlights.
Some fans complained that the “Karma” singer appeared too often to the detriment of NFL stars who weren’t included in the September 2 hype video.
“Genuine question, why is Taylor Swift shown more times in this video than anyone in your actual league?” one NFL fan commented on X under the video. “Really trying to understand why Taylor Swift made the @NFLhype video like she plays in the league? I mean there are 53 men on 32 teams that deserve the spotlight more than her!” another person wrote.
The Grammy winner addressed the topic of her appearances at Travis’ games in a December 6, 2023, interview with Time after being named their Person of the Year. Taylor claimed she had no idea how many times she was shown during telecasts and that control of it was out of her hands.
“I’m there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads,” the “Lover” songstress told the publication.
“I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in,” she continued. “There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once.”
“People are telling her to ignore the haters but it’s a little stressful for her and for Travis because he’s now got to smooth things out behind the scenes to make sure that people know she’s not trying to sort of impose herself,” the source said about Taylor’s presence at his first two games of his 2024 season.
“His teammates are giving him a pretty hard time about it too calling him Mr. Taylor Swift and saying he’s letting her run is life, which really bugs him. He’s not blaming her for it, but it is causing some tension,” the insider dishes.
Travis, 34, has put on a supportive front when it comes to being joked about as Taylor’s arm candy.
“It’s the life I chose, I guess,” Travis said about the attention surrounding his romance with Taylor during an appearance on the September 5 episode of CBS Mornings. “I have fun with it.”
“I love what I do and I love doing it with the people that I’m doing it with,” he continued. “I’d rather give everybody happiness and something to cheer about than otherwise.”
