Hardcore NFL fans, and Travis Kelce himself, feel that the league is going overboard with the Taylor Swift coverage. After the Chiefs’ TE spoke about it himself in a recent episode of his New Heights podcast with his Philadelphia Eagles brother Jason Kelce, even the NFL was bound to “clarify” their side of the coin. However, Colin Cowherd holds the opinion that it was a good move by the NFL.
Advertisement
In one of his latest takes in The Herd, Cowherd backed the NFL’s excitement with Taylor Swift, and it was nothing new. He further stated that sports fans think their star players conquer the world when, in reality, pop stars like Taylor Swift are way more popular.
Taylor Swift has Colin Cowherd in her Corner
After Taylor Swift attended the Kansas City Chiefs’ second game in a row, fans, but more so “The NFL” itself, were in a frenzy. Rumored to be dating Chiefs star TE Travis Kelce, this Kelce-Swift relationship has taken the driving seat amongst the matches, as the “Love Story” singer remains the center of attention. On Wednesday, even Travis himself talked about how the NFL might just be “overdoing it.”
However, in a recent episode of his show, Cowherd believes it to be the “NFL’s smartest move.” He even went as far as to compare sighting celebrities at restaurants to Swift’s hype at the game, saying, “
Why would not the NFL lean into Taylor Swift? She boosted the American economy this summer by $5 billion in consumer spending that’s just in the United States… people talk about it: if Taylor Swift was an economy, she would be bigger, I looked it up this morning, than 50 countries! Watch out, Canada, she’s gaining on you…”
Not only that, the sports anchor even seemingly took a jab at Jason’s comment of “NBA being better with celebrities” as he spoke about how the NBA is no better than the NFL. Cowherd drew a comparison by saying how
“NBA leans into celebrities at games… during timeouts of NBA games literally Bob Costas and Pat Riley. I mean, you’d have like a big broadcast team, and there’d be a timeout when they wouldn’t analyze the game. They go to Jack Nicholson (to interview him), and this is LA where there’s a thousand stars at every game… it’s pretty cool.”
It feels like even though most stand against NFL’s “Swiftie” hype, Colin Cowherd has a whole new outlook as he even compared Swift’s popularity with one of NFL’s most loved QBs, Patrick Mahomes.
Is Swift More Popular than Chiefs’ QB Patrick Mahomes
Cowherd didn’t stop his defense against the NFL’s policy of keeping Taylor Swift at the forefront. He draws a comparison between the popstar and the Chiefs star QB Mahomes, saying,
“Sports fans think everybody in the world knows Patrick Mahomes. Taylor Swift is at least 40 to 50 times more popular than Patrick Mahomes. Her Instagram is 273 million his is six. She has like five times the Instagram followers of the National Football League. Now, IG isn’t the uh be all end all of the popularity, but it is a cultural uh touchstone…”
Shawn Levy on watching the Chiefs game with Taylor Swift. “Ryan [Reynolds] invited Hugh [Jackman] and I…Nothing prepared us for the frenzy of attention that was that outing…I’ve known famous people, but Taylor is definitely a culture magnet, unlike anything I’ve seen.” pic.twitter.com/KDrw6N9d18
— Variety (@Variety) October 6, 2023
It seems like, though, the Kelce brothers agreed with most fans’ take on the NFL’s “overdoing” of the Swift-Kelce trend; Colin Cowherd stands tall with his point of view. His thoughts surely come as a zinger for all the naysayers about Swift’s popularity. He even talked about how even Tom Brady does not have the kind of international stardom that pop stars like Taylor Swift enjoy.
The NFL and Swift herself have seen some backlash, following the hype about her attendance at the games. There are people on both sides of the court, the ones who think the hype is taking away from the experience of the games itself, and the ones who are embracing all the new eyeballs the games are receiving. Which side are you on?
