Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Merril Hoge aimed at the “weak and stupid media” for blaming the Kansas City Chiefs’ floundering season on pop star Taylor Swift.
The Chiefs are suffering a remarkably different season this year compared to last year’s Super Bowl-winning season. To date, they sit at a dismal 9 and 6 and have lost their previous five games in a row. And were it not for the other teams’ records in their division, they may not even be on track to make the playoffs.
Some are blaming Taylor Swift for all this.
Even fans have taken to calling Swift “Yoko Swifto” in a reference to Yoko Ono, who is widely blamed for breaking up the Beatles.
Indeed, at one recent game, Swift was booed when her image showed up on the jumbotron.
Massive boo’s from Gillette as Taylor swift comes on the jumbo, America is waking up pic.twitter.com/rfgMUllpHL
— Mexican Mindset (@DonnieMexico17) December 17, 2023
But if some in the media blame Chief star Travis Kelce’s relationship with Taylor Swift and the massive distraction that has brought to the team for the Chiefs’ downfall, Merril Hoge wants them to know that is hogwash, according to Fox News.
Hoge, who played eight seasons in the NFL and retired in 1994 due to repeated concussions, told Outkick’s Dan Dakich that blaming Swift for the Chiefs’ problems on the field is idiotic.
“It’s irrelevant. That’s a media twist. That’s actually just to tell you how weak and stupid media is and people are,” Hoge railed.
He said Swift has nothing to do with the team’s performance.
“It has nothing to do with the locker room,” Hoge continued. They’ve never been in the locker room. They clearly don’t understand the National Football League, the dynamics of winning on Sundays – when you win, when you lose, the struggles that exist. Somebody who sings songs has zero to do with it.”
Merril Hoge, a football analyst for ESPN television and a former running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears, looks on from the sideline before a game between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field on September 7, 2014 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
Indeed, Hoge said blaming Swift for the Chiefs’ troubles on the field would be as idiotic as blaming the Chiefs if Swift were to turn out a bad album.
Hoge insisted, “That’d be like her not having a successful album and saying ‘Travis Kelce is because she didn’t have a successful album. It has nothing to do with it. She has nothing to do with where they are right now.”
Kelce and Swift have been in a relationship almost since the season started, but neither Kelce nor Chiefs QB Mahomes have been doing all that well this season, though some noted both did better at the start of the season than they are now.
It isn’t too late to salvage the season to some degree. But angry Chiefs have apparently already found their scapegoat.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston