The NFL defended its decision to tackle coverage of Taylor Swift’s rumored relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce after the star player weighed in on how the league is treating the news.
“We frequently change our bios and profile imagery based on what’s happening in and around our games, as well as culturally,” the NFL told Deadline in a statement that partially addressed Swift-themed changes to the league’s social media channels. “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 budding relationship heard ’round the pop culture world over the past two weeks has been the focus of talk on right-wing media outlets, outrage among some NFL fans and the subject of memes dished out by the Empire State Building and Heinz. However, so far, neither party has publicly confirmed a relationship.
The NFL’s comments arrived after Kelce ― in his “New Heights” podcast with his brother Jason Kelce ― said he thinks “it’s fun” to see who’s all at the game but added that “at the same time, they’re overdoing it a little bit for sure ― especially my situation. I think they’re just trying to have fun with it.”
The NFL, later in its statement, pointed to other events its promoted from around the league outside of Swift and Kelce.
“The vast majority of our content has remained focused on the game, our players and variety of other initiatives, including our Toy Story Funday Football alt-cast, the international games and more,” the statement read.
TV viewership numbers show that fans were all in on #Traylor this past weekend.
The “Karma” singer’s appearance at the matchup between Kelce’s Chiefs and the New York Jets scored 27 million viewers for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” making it the “most-watched Sunday NFL game” since the Super Bowl earlier this year, according to Deadline.
NBC showed Swift – who was joined by stars Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman – on 17 occasions during the network’s broadcast of the game on Sunday, according to Front Office Sports.
The broadcast also featured two commercials for Swift’s upcoming concert film and three commercials featuring Kelce.
The NFL, following the game, changed its Instagram bio to “chiefs are 2-0 as swifties.”