Furious NFL fans have slammed the fanfare surrounding Taylor Swift and her boyfriend Travis Kelce and criticised NBC for too many mentions and cutaways of the singer during Sunday night’s broadcast of the Jets-Chiefs game.
The online chatter surrounding their relationship reached a fever pitch on Sunday when Swift turned up at MetLife Stadium to watch Kelce play for the second week in a row.
As soon as the cameras spotted Swift in the stands, NBC anchor Mike Tirico said: ‘Oh yeah, she’s here: Taylor is in the house’, before adding: ‘Hi Swifties, we’ll be with you all night.’
During the game, NBC cut to the singer 17 different times in a move that became a constant source of frustration for those tuning in to watch Kansas City dominate against New York.
NFL fans have slammed Swift’s football ‘take-over’, with some saying that the constant cutaways to the singer during the coverage is ‘destroying football’.
‘In case anyone didn’t hear, Taylor Swift was at the game. And NBC made it really annoying,’ award-winning sports writer Jeff Pearlman wrote on Twitter.
Fox contributor Tomi Lahren wrote: ‘The wall-to-wall coverage of Taylor Swift at this game is annoying AF. I don’t even like football and I agree it’s destroying football. Just enough.’
And the furore surrounding the singer wasn’t isolated to NBC – Terry Bradshaw, the co-host of Fox NFL Sunday, even gave handmade Taylor Swift friendship bracelets to his co-workers during the live broadcast. As he handed them out, he said: ‘You’re now part of the Swiftie group.’
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Furious NFL fans have slammed the fanfare surrounding Taylor Swift and her supposed boyfriend Travis Kelce after NBC cut to the singer 17 different times during Sunday night’s broadcast of the Jets-Chiefs game
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The most furious reaction came after the Chiefs’ first touchdown, when NBC’s cameras immediately cut to Taylor hugging her friends
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And the furore surrounding the singer wasn’t isolated to NBC – Terry Bradshaw, the co-host of Fox NFL Sunday, even gave handmade Taylor Swift friendship bracelets to his co-workers during the live broadcast
In response, one fan said: ‘GOOD GRIEF, talk football. SICKENING TO KEEP HEARING SWIFT OR SWIFTIES.’
The most furious reaction came after the Chiefs’ first touchdown, when NBC’s cameras immediately cut to Taylor and her celebrity pals including Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds in their suite.
Given it was Isiah Pacheco scoring the points rather than Kelce, some fans were left furious, claiming they should have shown the players celebrating on the field instead
‘Jersey kid Isaiah Pacheco scores a touchdown at MetLife with all of his family in attendance,’ Andrew Natalizio wrote on Twitter.
‘NBC: cuts to Taylor Swift for some f***ing reason. I’m so sick of this already.’
Sports business analyst Joe Pompliano wrote: ‘The broadcast is showing Taylor Swift immediately after the Chiefs score and she is hugging people to celebrate an ISIAH PACHECO touchdown. This is already getting ridiculous.’
NBC’s telecast cut to Swift several times during the game, including a shot of the pop superstar with her arm around Kelce’s mother, Donna, who was wearing her son’s No. 87 jersey.
‘Please don’t play a Taylor Swift on your TV drinking game… you’ll be hospitalized, if you aren’t already,’ one fan wrote on Twitter.
Another added: ‘These Taylor Swift cutaways during Chiefs games have got to go.’
Maria Taylor, the host of NBC’s pregame show on Sunday night, had opened her monologue with a nod to Swift’s song ‘Enchanted’ and over the night hour, the anchors spoke about fans wearing the singer’s t-shirts.
When Swift arrived at MetLife Stadium at around 7.40pm, announcer Mike Tirico said: ‘Oh, and yeah, she’s here: Taylor is in the house.’ He then added: ‘Hi Swifties, we’ll be with you all night.’
The Jets-Chiefs game on Sunday night was the second in the space of a week that Swift has dominated, after she turned up at Arrowhead last Sunday to watch her man score a touchdown in the 41-10 beatdown of the Bears.
In the days since, there has been a huge amount of online chatter about their relationship, and that reached fever pitch on Sunday when she turned up again to watch him play.
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Furious NFL fans have slammed the fanfare surrounding Taylor Swift (pictured with Ryan Reynolds) and her supposed boyfriend Travis Kelce after NBC cut to the singer 17 different times during Sunday night’s broadcast of the Jets-Chiefs game
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Taylor Swift raises her hands up during the game at MetLife Stadium while she watched Travis Kelche play
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NFL fans have slammed Swift’s football ‘take-over’, with some saying that the constant cutaways to the singer during the coverage is ‘destroying football’
They are also rumored to have spent the night together on Saturday, after Kelce was spotted arriving back at his hotel in Weehawken on Sunday morning.
While NFL fans are angry by the coverage of Taylor Swift at the games, the Chiefs-Bears game attended by the singer last Sunday was the most viewed of the weekend, with an average of 24.3 million fans tuning in on Fox.
It’s not clear exactly when Travis and Taylor began seeing each other, but Travis had revealed on his New Heights podcast in July that he had hoped to introduce himself to Taylor when he attended one of her Eras Tour stops.
‘I wanted to give Taylor Swift [a bracelet] with my number on it,’ the tight end shared, but he learned that the singer’s devotion to putting on the best performance possible made it impossible to chat with her.
‘I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings, so I was a little butt-hurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her,’ he said.
During the latest episode of Travis’ podcast he addressed the dating rumors.
While speaking to his brother and co-host, Jason Kelce, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, he gave a shoutout to Swift and said she ‘looked amazing’.
‘Shoutout to Taylor for pulling up,’ he said. ‘That was pretty ballsy.
‘I just thought it was awesome how everyone in the suite had nothing but great things to say about her. The friends and family. She looked amazing, everybody was talking about her in a great light.
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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce leaving Arrowhead together after the game last week
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Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) reacts with offensive tackle Donovan Smith (79) during the second quarter of an NFL football game on Sunday
‘On top of that, the day went perfect for Chiefs fans of course. We script it all ladies and gentlemen. It was just impressive.
‘It was definitely a game I will remember.’
Swift is on a break from her Eras Tour, which resumes Nov. 9 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. NBC played a commercial for the tour about 20 minutes before kickoff.
MetLife Stadium is a familiar spot for Swift, who performed three sold-out concerts there in May. Among those in attendance for two of those shows was Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who returned to the team this weekend after tearing his left Achilles tendon on the fourth play of his debut with New York on Sept. 11.
Rodgers attended a team meeting Saturday night and was at the stadium watching player warmups from the sideline Sunday night.
Swift’s decision to watch Kelce play last Sunday also saw jersey sales for Kelce skyrocketed.
According to sportswear and fan merchandise company Fanatics, Kelce was one of the top 5 selling NFL players last Sunday. He ‘saw a nearly 400% spike in sales throughout the Fanatics network of sites, including NFLShop.com,’ a spokesperson said.
Sales spiked on the same day that Swift was spotted in Kansas City, watching the Chiefs play the Chicago Bears alongside Kelce’s mother, Donna, from one of the football stadium’s glass-enclosed suites.
