Even the NFL has gone all-in on the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce era, but they also had to scale it back after major backlash.
The league changed its Instagram bio to “Chiefs are 2-0 as swifties” soon after Kansas City defeated the New York Jets on Monday Night Football. Hours later, the account swiftly removed the line from their Instagram.
For some fans on social media, those edits that supported Swift were unnecessary after a close game that featured some questionable calls in the fourth quarter that heavily favored the Chiefs while Swift was in attendance. One of those calls included a holding penalty on Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner that later resulted in head coach Robert Saleh getting flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.
On Wednesday, the NFL issued a statement defending its decision to lean into the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce romance.
Via PEOPLE:
“We frequently change our bios and profile imagery based on what’s happening in and around our games, as well as culturally. 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 a variety of other initiatives, including our Toy Story Funday Football alt-cast, the international games, and more.”
It may have been done in good fun but it came off the heels of a controversial game as well as fans being blasted with non-stop Swift content since she got into a relationship with Travis Kelce.
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The Gardner penalty in the game occurred with the Chiefs facing a third-and-20 and while they had all the moment in the contest as Zach Wilson was vastly outplaying Patrick Mahomes.
While facing a third-and-23, Patrick Mahomes scrambled for 24 yards and a first down, despite Donovan Smith appearing to hold Jermaine Johnson. Those are two plays that basically ended all hope for the Jets.
