I Don't Need Taylor Swift to Help Me Understand Football

with Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce.
Even if you don't care, you definitely heard.I happen to care very much about two of those things: football and Taylor Swift.

Well, and tangentially Travis Kelce, I suppose, because he doesn’t happen to be the best in the league at his position on the defending Super Bowl champion team, and once helped my fantasy team win more than a few games.
He’s not really my type, but that’s not wherein my beef lies.

(Let’s save those thoughts for our group chats, shall we?)This isn’t about these two famous people who are “still just getting to know each other” in “more of a hanging out situation than dating,” according to a source in .
No, my rage is focused on the way people are talking about it and marketing it—especially those acting like women just discovered sports after Now, did a bunch of people (of varying genders and ages) tune into a game they otherwise would not have because of Taylor? They sure did.

There was anecdotal evidence everywhere on social media and the ratings for Sunday night’s game averaged 27 million, with a 53% surge in viewership among teenage girls, per .
I’m not here to gatekeep football or Taylor Swift.

I’m also not going to let people act like women of all ages didn’t previously enjoy the sport.
Taylor herself has spoken more than once about growing up watching Eagles games with her dad—and even has a lyric in the song “Gold Rush” on “Evermore” that references “my Eagles T-shirt hanging from the door.” She confirmed at one of her Philly shows during the Eras tour that she did indeed mean the Philadelphia football team, and not the band—though she likes them, too.In fact, being a longtime superfan of either or both Taylor and the NFL has sometimes been