Angry Super Bowl watchers have themselves to blame for their Taylor Swift ‘problem’ — Jimmy Watkins
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Travis Kelce just scored a touchdown during the Super Bowl, and you’re about to get mad. Here it comes: The camera pans past the players and fans, finds the family suite and lands on Taylor Swift, a 14-time Grammy Award winner who dates the Chiefs’ tight end. You can’t help yourself.
Yes, again. I know the NFL is forcing Swift into your face (read: filming b-roll footage). And I know she has nothing to do with this game, (except that she dates one of the players, which is more stake than most of us will ever have in the Super Bowl). But before you start an argument with the Swiftie in your living room this weekend — and every room has one — ask yourself one question: Why does the NFL keep cutting to Swift in the first place?
Contrary to crochety belief, she doesn’t control the cameras, and she didn’t ask for the attention. The NFL films Swift of its own volition because her presence alone is enough to drive business — $331.5 million worth, according to industry experts. And when the NFL shows her celebrating again this weekend — for 0.46% of airtime on average, per the New York Times — it won’t be her fault. It will be yours.
That’s right, you did this — yes, even you — because we all did. Swift’s cultural ubiquity, which has now bled into our weekly football broadcasts, is a product of the pedestal upon which we place our favorite celebrities. And just because Swift doesn’t crack your top five doesn’t mean you can wash your hands of this “problem,” which has been mischaracterized throughout the Swiftie-dominated football season.
Put another way: The problem is not that the NFL keeps showing Swift on television. The problem is that everything Swift does is worth showing — and worth a lot of money.
