Taylor Swift Is Too Famous for This

Author: Editors Desk Source: The Atlantic

October 2, 2023 at 10:47

Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic. Sources: Cooper Neill / Getty; Jeff Kravitz / Getty; David Eulitt / Getty.

The celebrity-gossip industrial complex is about to crash into the savagery of sports media. Cover your eyes.

Has taylor swift ever been more popular, more all-powerful, more white Beyoncé than she is right now? She’s in the middle of an era-defining tour that is literally called the Eras Tour. A concert-film version of the show is about to arrive in theaters nationwide—she dropped the news a few weeks ago, and within hours, Hollywood studios were scrambling to get their movies out of her way. The bracelets are everywhere. And now, to her vast dominion, she has added untold millions of football-loving (mostly) men, thanks to her escalating flirtations with the Kansas City Chiefs’ sexy goofus tight end, Travis Kelce.

Quick recap: On the July 26 episode of his popular podcast, New Heights—which he co-hosts with his brother, a star offensive lineman with the Philadelphia Eagles—Kelce lamented that he’d gone to Swift’s concert at Arrowhead Stadium, in Kansas City, and was hoping to pass along a bracelet with his number on it, but she blew him off. (Actually, it’s unclear if she blew him off or just had no idea who he was.) In any case, he confessed to being “butthurt” by the rejection. But he didn’t give up. This month, on an episode of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN, Kelce revealed that he’d invited Swift to the Chiefs’ upcoming home game against the Chicago Bears. (“I told her that I’ve seen her rock a stage in Arrowhead, and she might have to come see me rock the stage at Arrowhead,” he said.) This time, she accepted.

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