Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Dungy said that the NFL’s obsession with Taylor Swift is a turnoff to fans and is “taking away” from the product on the field.
The Super Bowl-winning coach who now plies his trade as an analyst for NBC commented on the league’s infatuation with the pop music megastar who has been engaged in a highly publicized relationship with Travis Kelce, the stud tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Fox News caught up with Dungy before Saturday’s edition of the annual Hula Bowl college football all-star game and asked the former head coach about the so-called “Taylor Swift” effect, something that has turned the stomachs of many fans who don’t enjoy having their football mixed with celebrity tabloid romance.
(Video: Fox News)
“I think we’ll always have sports in some form or fashion, some people are disenchanted with it,” Dungy said.
“That’s the thing that’s disenchanting people with sports now,” he added. “There’s so much on the outside coming in. Entertainment value and different things. Taking away from what really happens on the field.”
Swift’s hooking up with Kelce has seen her as a fixture at Chiefs games, many of which are nationally televised with the team being the reigning Super Bowl champion, and on Saturday night, she was featured during the broadcast of the NFL wild-card game on the Peacock streaming service.
During the contest which was easily won by the home team in frigid temperatures, the cameras often cut away to Swift who was watching the game from the cozy comfort of an Arrowhead Stadium luxury suite.
Taylor Swift arrives for playoff football. pic.twitter.com/aPeFXNueaE
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 14, 2024
There’s a party at Arrowhead as #TaylorSwift, Brittany #Mahomes & Donna #Kelce dance! #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/FigHVJylGd
— Starcade Media (@StarcadeMediaKC) January 14, 2024
Taylor dancing and singing! stop this is so cute! pic.twitter.com/hI066SUXHd
— ✩ CEL ✩ (@moonlithoax) January 14, 2024
Swift’s love chunk hauled in 7 passes for 71 yards in the Chiefs’ 26-7 throttling of the South Florida team that was clearly out of its elements in the brutal Midwestern winter weather.
Kelce’s performance on the field this year has been far less than his normal superhuman self as the formerly unstoppable top target for Chiefs gunslinger Patrick Mahomes reached the end zone only 5 times during the 2023 season, a massive dropoff from the dozen touchdowns that he hauled in the previous year.
The team’s late-season swoon along with Kelce’s subpar numbers have led some to liken Swift to Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s Japanese girlfriend who was blamed for breaking up The Beatles.
The Chiefs are not a good football team and Travis Kelce looks like he should retire. He’s been worthless the last seven or eight weeks. The double worthless Pfizer shots may have caught up with him. Either that or Taylor Swift is the Chiefs Yoko Ono. Maybe both.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) December 25, 2023
Another celebrity of note, Larry the Cable Guy didn’t think that the NFL’s pandering to the “Swifties” was a big deal at all.
“There’s a lot of stuff in the world to worry about than Taylor Swift dating somebody or they’re showing her too much on the TV,” he said. “I don’t agree with some of her politics… that doesn’t ever get in the way of my entertainment choices.”
With the Chiefs advancing in the playoffs, fans will have to suffer through at least one more week of her dominating the coverage the way that “Mr. Pfizer” once did to opponents on the field.
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