In the countdown to Super Bowl 58 and post-bowl, there was quite a bit of hate towards the Chiefs franchise. This hate is nothing new. Many teams in the NFL receive hate, and the amount of it they receive goes up and down all the time. Right now, the amount of hate the chiefs are receiving is at an all time high.
There are a few factors that have contributed to this immense amount of hatred; their recent success on the field, the “Taylor Swift effect,” and the unbelievability of the chiefs’ playoff run this January. All of these factors have led to a built up resentment that fans of every other team in the NFL have towards the Chiefs.
There is a sort of conspiratorial aspect to this hate. Many claim that the NFL is scripted, similarly to the WWE. This narrative is their way to justify the chiefs winning even in the most improbable situations. When the Chiefs win, they tell themselves it’s because of the script, the refs, the NFL wants the Chiefs to win because that’s what will make them the most money.
That last reason is the worst of them all. Especially because it’s completely nonsensical. If the NFL were to pick a team to script the season and win the Super Bowl, they would pick a team in one of the biggest sports markets, like New York or Los Angeles, certainly not a city like Kansas City, a smaller city with less people, less sports, less money.
The other reason for hating the Chiefs, the reason most specific to this season, is Taylor Swift and her relationship with Chiefs’ Star Tight End Travis Kelce. I am a Chiefs fan, not a Taylor Swift fan. I personally have nothing against Taylor as a person, but even I find it a little bit annoying how much the networks focus on the Taylor Swift thing.
But that isn’t specific to Taylor Swift. I dislike the hyper-commercial aspect of football, and the way that it takes the focus away from the wonderful sport of football. I don’t like sports betting, every stadium being named after a company that sponsors them and even the focus on the ads during the Super Bowl.
I just like the sport.
That being said, there is an enormous difference between me hating everything commercial in football, and people selectively hating Taylor Swift, but not hating everything else about football that isn’t focused on football.
As Marko Nago, a junior at MHS put it: “Taylor takes the focus away from football. She is on screen too long. I just want to watch football.”
Colin Cowherd explained on his show, “The Herd,” shortly after the Chiefs advanced from divisional round versus the Bills, that Taylor Swift is only on screen each game for an average of 25 seconds. This is far smaller than the commercials that play several times every quarter, and this is comparable to other celebrities mentioned in other sports.
