Travis Kelce thinks the NFL is ‘overdoing it’ by focusing so much on Taylor Swift

Today is Travis Kelce’s birthday – he turns 34 years old, which means he’s only two months older than Taylor, who turns 34 in December. Taylor was seen leaving New York yesterday and boarding one of her private planes at Teterboro Airport, and Page Six believes she was flying out to Kansas City to see her man. I believe it! You know the NFL is just dying to tweet about it too, which brings me to this – Travis and his brother Jason talked about how the NFL is doing way too much to promote Travis and Taylor’s relationship.

Travis Kelce thinks the NFL needs to “calm down” with their celebrity coverage. On the latest episode of New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce Presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment, the Kansas City Chiefs star, 33, opened up about his thoughts on the extensive coverage the NFL broadcast has been putting on celebrities amid his rumored romance with Taylor Swift.

“Let’s get to it, is the NFL overdoing it?,” Jason Kelce, 35, asked his brother about the celebrity coverage. “What’s your honest opinion? Take away your feelings for Taylor…” which prompted a laugh from Travis. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end admitted, “I think it’s fun when they show who was at the game. I think it brings a little bit more to the atmosphere, brings a little bit more to what you’re watching. But at the same time I think-”

“They’re overdoing it,” Jason finished, to which Travis agreed: “They’re overdoing it a little bit for sure, especially my situation. [But] I think they’re just trying to have fun with it.”

Swift, 33, attended Sunday’s game with a host of other stars including Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman and Sophie Turner, who were featured on the broadcast multiple times. Jason theorized that the NFL was “just not used to celebrities coming to the games.”

“Like basketball has it figured out,” he said. “They show them once or twice but then they get back to the game. NFL is like, ‘Oh my God look at all these A-lIst celebrities at the game, keep showing them, show em, show em…’ You show them once let them know they’re there and after touchdowns you get a little clip, but it can’t be overboard with it. People are there to watch the game right?”

“Yeah, they’re not there to get thrown on the TV,” Travis said of the celebrities, including Swift who is notoriously private. “Cause you never know you get caught you know just throwing a big ol’ cheeseburger in and you look like an idiot you know what I mean, there’s just certain things… You just don’t want to be on TV at all times.”

The brothers also noted that the NFL has been increasing its commercials featuring Travis between the game. Jason said Travis appeared in about “seven commercials” during “every commercial break.”

[From People]

Travis and Jason went on to admit that the NFL was pleased by the huge ratings the Chiefs-Jets game got, likely because they’re tapping into a huge new fan base of girls and women who want to see what “Taylor Swift’s boyfriend” is doing. While football is HUGE in America, there’s always room to grow the sport, and that’s the reason why the NFL is doing too much about Traylor: for years, the NFL has been dying to bring in more female fans, and now they have the perfect vehicle with Tay-Tay. Speaking of, the NFL actually responded to Travis and Jason’s comments:

After getting backlash from some football fans for their focus on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce the last two weeks, the NFL is explaining its spotlight on the pop superstar amid her rumored relationship with the athlete.

Swift, 33, has made the trip for Kelce’s last two games — one in Kansas City on Sept. 24 and a second on Sunday in New York — which led the league to post about the “Anti-Hero” singer on their social media pages, including changing their Instagram bio to “The @Chiefs are now 2-0 with @TaylorSwift13 in attendance” and briefly putting photos of Swift as their TikTok header.

But the attention towards Swift has led to annoyance from some football fans, which the NFL addressed Tuesday, explaining that the social media changes are a normal part of their strategy.

“We frequently change our bios and profile imagery based on what’s happening in and around our games, as well as culturally,” the NFL tells PEOPLE. “The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news has been a pop cultural moment we’ve leaned into in real time, as it’s an intersection of sport and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport.”

“The vast majority of our content has remained focused on the game, our players and variety of other initiatives, including our Toy Story Funday Football alt-cast, the international games and more,” the statement concluded.

[From People]

Wouldn’t be the first time the NFL has misread the vibe, but this huge, lucrative league actually looks NEEDY. They look desperate for attention from Taylor and Travis and they look really uncool. Just my take! I’ll also say this – while I do not believe this was the NFL’s intention whatsoever, their outsized focus on Taylor and the Traylor relationship has ended up making Taylor a target for the douchebag bros in the NFL fanbase. And even if the NFL did that unintentionally (as I believe they did), they should absolutely shut down their douche-bro crybaby fans. A statement about how the NFL doesn’t tolerate misogyny and everyone, especially Taylor and her fans, is welcome.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, Avalon Red.

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45 Responses to “Travis Kelce thinks the NFL is ‘overdoing it’ by focusing so much on Taylor Swift”

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  1. aquarius64 says:

    The NFL overdid it with Traylor and it put out this statement out of fear of fan defection.

    • ML says:

      If the NFL wants to spread out, they should keep on focusing on Taylor and ignore the douchebags’ whinging. Since leaving the US, I would have to seek out NFL news outside the superbowl season. Because of TS, American football has been in the news globally.

    • HufflepuffLizLemon says:

      I would say they might have gotten a little overboard, sure. Making it NFL (Taylor’s Version) is certainly doing the most.

      but how much FUN is it? Like, American government is a dumpster fire (driven by one side who can’t even figure out how to work together internally), capitalism is a train wreck, global disasters, etc etc, but now, two separate groups of pop culture fans are colliding and almost everyone is familiar with EITHER football or music, if not specifically Kelce/Swift. No one is being harmed. Everyone can have an opinion. Why not be silly and have fun with it? Group chats are a great place to drop a little comment and watch everyone weigh in.

  2. I’m part of the NFL fan base who thinks it’s too much. The game Sunday night nbc was giddy with watching Taylor’s box and frequently the camera left the field to see what she was doing and commenting on it. Yes it’s nice when they scan the crowd and find someone famous there but this was ridiculous. It’s a football game so let’s watch that!

    • lucy2 says:

      I agree, they are doing too much.
      I go to a lot of Eagles games, and there’s often at least one or two celebrities in attendance. They’re usually shown once on the big screen, wave to the crowd, and that’s the end of it. Same when I watch a game on TV.

    • Kitten says:

      It’s so stupid. I still don’t really understand why people are losing their damn minds over these two…like, this isn’t some unexpected pairing like J Lo and Affleck. This isn’t Swift’s first boyfriend, either. The utter frenzy that’s surrounding them is so f*cking weird and honestly just cringe.

      And no. I’m not gonna watch the Chiefs game just so I can see a 5 second clip of Taylor Swift LOL. If I watch the Chiefs game it’s because I wanna watch some damn football.

  3. ML says:

    I completely understand why Taylor is controversial…but here she’s done the NFL a major favor. They must have pulled in millions of dollars due to ticket sales, merchandise, TV viewing, etc.
    Also, her dating Travis has led to huge free advertising for the (Pfizer) COVID vaccine and booster. This is all good.
    As to Travis: this relationship feels very Hiddleswift-like. This guy seems very thirsty and is not camera-shy. What he’s saying here doesn’t entirely add up, though I get he might not have known exactly what he was in for by dating TS.

    • BlueNailsBetty says:

      I suspect Travis thought he could control the fame narrative of this relationship and is now realizing he can’t, hence his wanting to put the brakes on the publicity.

    • Kitten says:

      Billionaires helping billionaires! Brings a damn tear to my eye I tell ya.

      • ML says:

        Thanks Kitten 😂
        For the NFL Taylor is doing the Lord’s work, not for us. Or for people who don’t like American football. I now realize what I wrote…

  4. M says:

    Your fault, bro. Travis was so concerned about the MAGA fanbase after advertising for Big Pharma that he orchestrated this PR blitz. That means you gotta deal with the consequences.

    • Arizona says:

      I think if that was the case, he would not have gone after Swift for the PR boost. as we’ve seen, she’s not exactly popular with the MAGA base.

    • girl_ninja says:

      ***

    • Lucy says:

      He was one of the football players who knelt during the anthem in 2017. He’s already not a maga favorite, and good for him. He’s a ham who has a sense of humor about himself and seems pretty secure. In the podcast with his brother, his brother and his sister in law made jokes about how if someone gets with him while he has this mustache, he knows it’s because of his personality not his looks 😂

      Anyway. The fact that he wants the nfl to stop putting Taylor on the spot seems more like this is a real relationship and he doesn’t want to freak her out with the nfl being needy

      • Kitten says:

        It’s probably more about pissing off his teammates than anything else. They’re there to play the game and every Sunday, that’s their day to have all eyes on them. Taylor isn’t intentionally trying to do this, but she’s absolutely stealing their thunder. No way that they’re not annoyed by that,

    • QuiteContrary says:

      LOL, this is a terrible take @M. Travis Kelce isn’t losing sleep about the MAGA fan base.

      He did a Bud Light commercial after that nonsensical uproar. As Lucy points out, he knelt in 2017 in solidarity with Black players. He and his brother are good guys.

  5. Chantal says:

    I think its smart marketing 101. The NFL is focused on generating more and more ad revenue. Companies pay the NFL $$ to feature their ads during games (esp the Superbowl) so the more eyeballs, the better. Now a super duper star is dating one of their athletes and going to his games? You can’t buy that kind of publicity. Their response says the NFL faithful has made their objections known and the NFL will stop with the nonsense. While a multi celeb sighting at a non Superbowl game is great for business, Travis throwing the NFL under the bus after taking their relationship public is not so good. But no ones talking about Taylor’s recent problematic ex anymore so there’s that…

  6. Naye in va says:

    Imagine the NFL coming to the defense of women and minorities to their douchebag fan base.

  7. hangonamin says:

    the NFL has been making plans to expand their fanbase and now playing international games abroad. this was 100% capitalizing on the $$ aspect of things. if you’re going to do this, then i think travis and taylor get a cut of that. if you’re shilling them out to be influencers for NFL…

    • Normades says:

      Totally this. I live in France and walked by a very French bar (not expat sports bar) and was surprised to see that American football was being played on the télé (no one was watching though 😂)

  8. Vanessa says:

    Taylor Swift fandom continue to harass Travis ex girlfriend who is a black woman With racist slurs. I haven’t seen Taylor or Travis say anything about that Taylor has allowed her fans to attack people for decades unchecked but the moment she gets negative comments suddenly The NFL has to release a statement defending Taylor . The NFL is being extra about them but let be honest Taylor is loving the attention this relationship is bringing her it lets people forget about her dating a racist man just a few months ago.

    • girl_ninja says:

      I don’t get why they keep messing with Kayla. I don’t think she’s said a word about her ex and his new situationship. The only one who said anything is his ex girlfriend from his dating game show several years back. I do think Taylor saying something to her vultures is needed in this case.

    • Shai says:

      She has fostered a toxic fanbase & has said nothing about it because she feeds off the attention they give her. They’ve shown themselves to be racist multiple times & the second it’s pointed out, suddenly she’s a victim & people irrationally hate her.

  9. Gem says:

    Travis is a good guy. I don’t know why people say these nasty things in here about him but Kelce’s are a good bunch of people. He is not shy of the fame and the reason he said what he said, I believe it was in a way to protect TS from NFL bro’s rage. He knows if they don’t contain this now, Taylor will very fast become publicly enemy number 1 for football fans. I actually hope they can make it all the way. He seems like exactly what Taylor can make work long term as a whole package, his family included.

    • Grace says:

      I don’t EVER want to get married again, but if Travis Kelce asked me, I wouldn’t hesitate a second. I LOVE him, the ham that he is. He just seems like a good soul and a good person. Yes, he likes attention, but I don’t care. Lemme repeat. I LOVE HIM!🫢😊❤️😁

  10. Daisy says:

    I mean, it’s obvious the NFL would jump on the opportunity? And Travis can’t really complain when him and his brother have been mentioning Taylor whenever they can. She obviously doesn’t mind (at least for now), but they were absolutely fueling it.

  11. snappyfish says:

    When I watch sports, that’s what I want to see. I don’t care who is in the stands, or a luxury box, or hamming for the cameras. I do think the whole Taylor/Travis thing is a PR stunt. She had the Matty Healy kerfuffle & this is making people forget about that. Maybe she needs more “writing song about douchbags that cheat on me*” material.

    *from her SNL Monologue song….if you haven’t seen it look it up on YouTube. It’s super cute & she disses Joe Jonas

  12. bonobochick says:

    AFAIC, both the NFL and the mainstream media have been overdoing it about their whatevership. I muted a bunch of terms on twitter early last week cause I was so sick of the media hype oversaturating my timeline.

    I’m still watching out for how poorly Kayla Nicole is being treated by some Swifties on social media plus the lack of media coverage on misogynoir… or rather the double standard acceptance of it.

    Reminds me of how Meghan Markle has been attacked for years by certain UK folks who recently got fired yet as soon as they aimed at a white woman with a portion of that vitriol, suddenly folks had some energy to push back against misogyny. I guess misogynoir is ok, though. 😐

    • Vanessa says:

      Exactly when it’s a white woman suddenly the world is up in arms people are rushing to defend them . But I don’t see not one word be spoken about the suddenly racist abuse Kayla is getting because Travis is dating Taylor Swift and her fans deemed ok to racist abuse a woman who hasn’t done anything but date Travis before miss Taylor . I don’t see Taylor rushing to tell her fans to stop bullying Kayla instead people are calling Kayla immature because she decided to unfollow Brittany .

    • AC says:

      Exactly Esp about MM. They(the ones involved in the UK) are hypocritical. Meghan was treated worse and they didn’t do anything about it because she’s bi-racial and American.

  13. Becks1 says:

    “notoriously private” Taylor Swift 🤣🤣🤣

    Look, is this good PR for all involved? Yes. Is it getting old? Also yes. the NFL isn’t the same as the NBA with celebrity attendance but she is not the first celebrity to ever attend a game, especially in NJ. the NFL just looks so thirsty right now with all of this.

    As I said in another post this week we were watching the Sunday game and the cutaways to Taylor were ridiculous. Like maybe once or twice, okay, that’s to be expected. But it was just ridiculous.

  14. Normades says:

    I loved Lainey ‘s take to the Kelce brothers’ pushback which was basically just one big eye roll.

    • molly says:

      If Travis played an individual sport, his “NFL needs to chill” would indeed be eye-rolly.

      I read Lainey’s take, and I disagree with her conflating Player Travis with Podcast/Media Travis.
      Podcast Travis is acting as himself, appearing and talking in plenty of places, and from what I’ve seen, he’s never asked the media to chill out.

      But Player Travis is at work during NFL games, along with an entire team. What the NFL opts to (over) cover impacts the entire organization. Which, obviously they’re a business, so everyone understand WHY they do it, but I also very much understand Player Travis not wanting to be a distraction to his co-workers.

    • Gem says:

      Problem with Lainey’s take is she pretended that Jason and Travis dedicated entire podcast episode of their New Heights to it. That is not true. He has spoken maybe thrice about Taylor and has never overdone it, its less than 5 minutes segment and they barely gave anything in detail. Its clear that they have dated for months on the downlow after she split from Matt Healey. They went public only recently.

  15. Shai says:

    They’re doing way too much for a temporary ratings increase because the second these two break up, that’s gonna be it.

  16. AC says:

    I’ve commented before that even though the NFL has some fans in other countries, however it still isn’t as popular around the world as soccer(or what the rest of the world calls it football). TS put NFL and football(or what the rest of the world calls it American football) on the map.
    I’ve also read Lainey’s take on “NFL dude bros”(most likely MAGAs) and their mysogynistic take that a woman should just be seen supporting their man and not be heard. Pretty sure they see TS more successful globally than any of the NFL players, and they have their insecurities.. lol..
    The NFL higher ups know that the sport needs to start growing and can’t just rely on the dude bros(that group is also getting older). NASCAR is having the same issue.

    • Normades says:

      Exactly the rest of the world is watching the rugby World Cup. No one gives a shirt about American football outside the US.
      Rugby is US football without the halftimes and helmets and it’s eclipsing soccer (called football everywhere else) in popularity.

      • Normades says:

        NASCAR found an international market with drive to survive and international circuits.

      • Normades says:

        Also I gotta say while people love to call Tay an international pop star a lot of my friends wouldn’t really know her or be able to name any song. In Europe she’s no where like Beyoncé

      • Iris says:

        @normades what part of Europe are you in? I’m in Ireland and Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are equally famous/popular here. I think Taylor is probably more famous at the moment because she’s more in the public eye with re-recording her old albums and this romance with Travis. Beyoncé (whose music I prefer) tour is probably doing the same kind of numbers but she’s a much more private person that TS so she’s not in the gossip conversation the same way

    • AC says:

      I agree with Beyoncé. Actually her latest Tour is the highest grossing tour by a female artist ever, but we mostly hear about the TS tour in the media.
      In regards to NASCAR, my comparison with them was with F1. And here in the US gen z is having more interest with F1, and the NASCAR fans seem to be getting older and more right wing(like the NFL dude bros). F1 debut in Vegas this Nov and looks t like it’s going to be huge.

  17. molly says:

    I hate that SHE’S being blamed for being “shoved down our throats” like she’s in the SNF production booth and on the NFL social media team. S

    he’s allowed to put on red lipstick and go to a football game to cheer on her new boyfriend.