Barstool Sports chief Dave Portnoy is blasting the NFL for “simping” over the appearances of pop star Taylor Swift at its recent games. Coming off her recent global tour, she has now been in attendance for two weeks in a row now.
Swift is currently dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and so has attended two Chiefs games in a row. That’s caused a media frenzy, with Swifties meeting the world of gridiron football in the unlikeliest of pop culture marriages. Still, it’s amazing to see the ‘Taylor Swift’ effect take hold – even on an entity as enormous as the NFL.
But not for Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy, who recently said that everyone needs to chill on all the regard for this seemingly royal relationship.
“This is nuts,” Portnoy wrote on X. “The NFL is simping for Taylor.”
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He does have a point. And he’s not alone, as other sports talk ‘shock jocks’ – like ESPN’s Pat McAfee – have advanced the same thought. This week’s edition of Sunday Night Football seemed to center mostly on Taylor Swift, with the game merely being the backdrop of the broadcast. At every opportunity, the producers felt the need to go to a camera shot of the singer in her luxury box, and (of course) the NFL is playing up the budding romance between the billion-dollar pop star and one of their most popular and recognizable superstars.
The night actually became more of a happening than a football contest. As the New York Post noted, “Actor Hugh Jackman, singer Sabrina Carpenter, and “Game of Thrones” alum Sophie Turner also joined Swift at the game, where the Chiefs defeated the Jets, 23-20.”
Is Dave Portnoy correct? Has the NFL become a little too starstruck with the love story of the pop star and the Pro Bowler? Or is it good for the game to have that crossover appeal to a base of fans who wouldn’t care about pro football at all if Taylor Swift wasn’t there? In the end, the fans will likely grow as tired of all the hype as Dave Portnoy has, but not before The League milks it for all it’s worth.
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