Taylor Swift at the “Poor Things” premiere after party on December 06, 2023 in New York City.JAMES DEVANEY
Our shared pastime of tracking Taylor Swift’s NFL game attendance is nearly at its end, my friends. Week after week, we’ve tuned into Kansas City Chiefs games not necessarily because we adore the sport (how can we, given the alarming toll it takes on its players?) but to see if the billionaire singer will appear—ideally, in locally purchased vintage gear—to cheer on her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. But today is the last game in the Chiefs’ regular season, a matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers. And though Swift has been captured by the paparazzi in LA, it’s highly unlikely that she’ll hit SoFi stadium for this afternoon’s game.
Before you jump to conclusions, her likely absence is not because she’s shirking the spotlight. It’s true, the debate raging over the New York Times’s 5,000-word opinion piece speculating on Swift’s orientation might send a lesser star to their panic room. A vigorous defense mounted by her representative is probably the most acknowledgment we’ll get from Swift regarding that drama (though Vanity Fair did indeed contact her team for comment). Instead, Swift and Kelce are just the victim of a schedule conflict, as the Chiefs game and the Golden Globes—which Swift is widely expected to attend—are happening within hours of each other.
The Chiefs and Chargers will kick off at 1:25 p.m. local time, while the Golden Globes begin at 5 p.m. PT. Nominees and other stars will start to arrive at 3:30 p.m., and that includes, we assume, Swift, whose Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was nominated in the cinematic and box office achievement category.
The couple’s double booking is a double bummer. On the NFL side, watching dads, Brads, and Chads get mad that Swift is at a football game is fun; it also would have been fun to see what Kelce, a known fashion guy, would wear on the red carpet. But, alas, it’s not to be.
It’s also unlikely that Swift will take a Golden Globe home tonight, though anything is possible. The favorite in Swift’s category is Barbie, a movie that’s already been crushing it this busy awards weekend. Meanwhile, the Chiefs don’t have any pressure to win today’s game, as their number three seed ensures they’ll be in the AFC playoffs even if they lose to LA.
