Seth Meyers really doesn’t understand how NFL fans can passionately hate the NFL’s game day coverage of Taylor Swift.
“For all the people who complain about shots of Taylor Swift dancing and having fun during games, why? Why are you so mad?” Meyers, 50, quipped during the Wednesday, January 31, episode of his Late Night With Seth Meyers talk show. “I love football, but there’s 11 minutes of actual gameplay [shown on the broadcast].”
He continued, “What would you rather look at: shots of [Kansas City Chiefs coach] Andy Reid’s mustache freezing? Well, good news, you get both!”
Meyers was referring to the Chiefs’ AFC Wild Card game in January against the Miami Dolphins. “Taylor was at that game [too] and that’s when I knew it was for real,” he joked. “When this woman went to Kansas City in January when it was minus f—king 27 [degrees] with a wind chill because you know where else Taylor Swift could have been? Anywhere.”
Meyers further pointed out that Swift, whom he called “one of our greatest national treasures,” is dating “a guy named f—king Travis.”
“This is such an innocent All-American thing: They’re kissing on the field after he wins the big game and she’s celebrating with his mom and dancing along with family,” the talk show host added. “How can you be mad at that?”
Swift, 34, has been a proud member of Chiefs Kingdom since September 2023 in support of boyfriend Travis Kelce, a tight end for the team, whom she started dating the previous summer. Swift has attended 12 of Kelce’s football games, where she’s occasionally been shown on the Jumbotron and on camera. The coverage outraged several sports fans, who claimed that the pop star is prioritized onscreen over the actual game.
“I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in. There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once,” Swift told TIME in a December 2023 profile. “I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads and Chads.”
While football games typically air for three hours on TV, less than 20 minutes are devoted exclusively to the game as the camera often cuts to shots of fans in the stands, play reviews, expert commentary, sideline footage of the coaches and commercials. Sportscaster Colin Cowherd noted in January that the “18 minutes of actual football” lasts the same length as five of Swift’s songs.
Travis’ brother, Jason Kelce, is also on board with the NFL’s coverage of Swift.
“The attention’s there because the audience wants to see it. If people didn’t want to see it, they wouldn’t be showing it, I know that,” Jason, 36, joked during an interview with Cincinnati’s ABC affiliate WCPO 9 on Friday, February 2. “She’s a world star and the quintessential artist right now in the world. [She’s] immensely talented, an unbelievable role model for young women across the globe, so I think that the NFL would probably be foolish not to show her and show her be a role model for all the young girls out there.”
