For those hoping Taylor Swift would soon depart the NFL scene (which is pretty much everyone outside of NFL HQ), you will have to continue hoping.
The Chiefs are busy preparing for a Christmas Day clash against hated division rival, the Las Vegas Raiders. So, naturally, when Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes sat down for an interview with CBS’ Nate Burleson, they talked about Travis Kelce’s girlfriend.
“At first, I feel like everybody stayed away and just let [Kelce] do what he was doing, but then he started bringing Taylor around, and you realized how cool a person she was,” Mahomes said when asked about adjusting to Swiftie mania.
“For us there were a couple of jokes in the beginning, but now it’s just she’s part of Chiefs Kingdom now, she’s part of the team. It’s cool that she’s embraced Brittany, and they’ve built a friendship as well.”
How are the Kansas City Chiefs handling Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s high-profile romance?@PatrickMahomes told @NateBurleson about Taylor’s influence on the team: “She’s just part of Chiefs Kingdom and she is part of the team.”
Their interview airs Monday on @CBSSports. pic.twitter.com/H8ShuwiZJG
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) December 22, 2023
Being named “part of the team” is quite an achievement for Swift. After all, who could forget that crucial block she made in the Patriots game that brought her team victory? One cannot help but watch the Taylor Swift media tsunami that has swept over the NFL without feeling for the other, real NFL wives and girlfriends.
Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes react in a suite during the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on December 03, 2023, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
All across the league, there are hundreds of NFL wives and girlfriends who are in real relationships – not media-concocted fake romances – and are busy shuffling kids to school, making Christmas arrangements, driving their own cars, cooking their own meals, and cleaning their own houses, unlike Taylor Swift.
And who celebrates these heroic women? How many times do they get shown on television or the jumbotron? How many questions does Nate Burleson ask about non-celebrity wives? Zero times.
And to be fair, these women don’t ask for fame or fawning coverage. But, once, just once, it would be nice for the cameras to tear themselves away from Taylor Swift and show the family seating area of the stadium where freezing wives and children cheer on their players.
Maybe, just maybe, someone could call them “part of the team” too.