Taylor Swift and Tony Dungy: What — distraction in the NFL?
There’s a decent chance Taylor Swift will be in the greater Buffalo area this weekend, cheering on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and his Kansas City Chiefs when they take on the Bills.
You may be bemused, greatly entertained or — in some cases — downright angry about the pop superstar’s new relationship with the nation’s most popular TV sport. Former Minnesotan Tony Dungy, a fine man and announcer, has had enough.
“That’s the thing that’s disenchanting people with sports now,” the NFL Hall of Famer and Golden Gopher great told Fox News. “There’s so much on the outside coming in entertainment value and different things taking away from what really happens on the field.”
Hmm. The last time we checked, even before the arrival of the Swifties, the sport had evolved quite a bit from the black-and-white days of Bud Grant and Vince Lombardi.
One might even suggest that emphasizing “entertainment value” is what the NFL does best, regardless of whatever drama occurs between the multimillion-dollar celebrity players on the field. (See revenues, franchise values, TV ratings, Peacock streaming, announcer salaries, etc.)
Check out the social media platform X while Taylor does her thing in a luxury box, and you might also detect a bit of a political undercurrent to criticism of her appearances. We know, that’s hard to believe in 2024. But the LGBTQ-friendly singer has urged people to vote for a couple of Democrats, and her BF tight end had the temerity to promote COVID vaccination.
That’s radical stuff in some quarters.
Yet attention-seeking antics of all types are common in the NFL. An injured Kirk Cousins, who also has made headlines for his stance on COVID shots, trended on X for a short time last month when he appeared shirtless while leading a chant before his team was dismantled by the Green Bay Packers. We don’t suggest that Taylor follow suit, especially in snowy Buffalo and given how things turned out for Kirk’s squad.
It’s also difficult to set fashion trends without clothes.
For now, we’re content to check out what a happy or anxious Taylor is wearing, who she’s sitting with, and what she’s eating, drinking and singing — but only a few glimpses a game. Because, like Dungy might say, we realize what this country also needs right now is detailed analysis of how to attack a Cover 2 zone defense.
