Fifteen years ago, Taylor Swift balladized “You’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team,” but apparently that very same superstar seems to have changed her tune.
If you’ve opened any form of social media over the past week, you’ve probably seen the news taking the world by storm: international pop icon Taylor Swift and NFL superstar Travis Kelce are dating.
What?
Well, they are (at least we think so) and we here at the Sports Desk are dedicated to bringing you everything you need to know regarding the new power couple.
For those of you thinking, “the last time I checked, neither of these people have anything to do with the 5Cs” — that’s where you’re wrong. We have not one, but TWO football teams, don’t we? And a major piece of Pomona’s institutional history is that Taylor Swift PERFORMED at Bridges Auditorium back in 2012! If that doesn’t convince you, stop any proud Scripps student on their way to class and ask who’s blasting in their headphones … We’d bet it’s Ms. Americana herself. So yeah, we think this falls under our jurisdiction.
Before we get into the juicy happenings of last weekend, let’s take a look back to the cruel summer of 2023, where the “Eras Tour” took Taylor and her Swifties to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, home of none other than star tight end Kelce and the Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Not only was Kelce in attendance that fateful night, the new romantic brought a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. Much to his dismay, the king of our heart was unsuccessful in his jewelry delivery, walked away thinking “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve” and the potential love story was put to rest.
Fast forward to Sept 12. (unrelated, but this also Sports Editor Adam Akins’s PZ ’27 birthday. Everyone say happy belated birthday Adam!), when a “Messenger” article headlined “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce ‘Quietly Hanging Out’: Source (Exclusive)” broke the internet. We immediately asked ourselves “what does quietly hanging out even mean?” And as much as we wanted the news to be true, we couldn’t bring ourselves to buy in just yet. Fresh out of a rumored relationship with resident greaseball Matty Healy and now hanging out with an NFL star? Whose only move was a failed attempt at giving away a friendship bracelet? It was too good to be true, so we let it be nothing more than what it actually was: a wildest dream.
But this past Sunday, everything changed. T-mother-f-ing-Swift in the Kelce box at Arrowhead. Seated next to none other than MAMA KELCE. Are. You. Kidding me? Usher was announced as the halftime show performer this season and the Dolphins put up a historic 70 points on Denver, yet Swift and Travis enchanted the media — and us— as the biggest story of the day.
All we’ve seen on TikTok the past week has been reports of the two of them, and we’re not complaining. This is the most invested we’ve been in football since our brilliant editorial assistant Harold won his fantasy league last year.
However, this top news item — like the pop princess herself — has deeper significance than mere gossip. Swift’s takeover of the NFL this past week is a reflection of a phenomenon coined by several Tik Tok accounts as the “Year Of The Girl.” The Barbie movie, Olivia Rodrigo’s second album and the second season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” have all contributed to the yassification of 2023. To put it simply: the girls are up. And as much as we’d like to give Greta Gerwig the utmost amount of credit possible for her contribution to the digital firecracker of the impressively viral hashtag of “#girlhood,” the impact of Swift is simply beyond compare.
The force that has been T-Swift this year has transcended across social, economic and political domains. Despite her being the only successful example of trickle-down economics, actually boosting the United States economy, this is not even her most impressive feat. Her scope penetrated the impenetrable, charted the uncharted and defied the impossible. Last week, Swift did what no woman has ever done before: she infiltrated the NFL.
The previously sacred mojo-dojo-casa-house-esqe football Sundays have been hijacked. No longer can the Kens of the world enjoy their sport in isolation of the impact of women. We know that feminism has taken major strides when reporters’ best question to two-time superbowl champion and double NFL MVP award recipient Patrick Mahomes is whether or not he has been graced with the presence of Swift. And we know that it has progressed even further when his response entails an awkward stumbling through of his admiration of her and admitting that “hopefully [he] get[s] to meet her one day.”
The Taylor Swift Effect was in full swing this weekend. Kelce gained 27,000 plus Instagram followers following Sunday’s game and the Chiefs gained 13,000 themselves. On top of that, the tight end saw a nearly 400 percent increase in jersey sales over the weekend, putting his jersey as one of the five most popular in the NFL. Travis’ celebrity status skyrocketed overnight, with paparazzi now camped out outside his home.
Overall, we are not only thrilled that Swift has found another way to never leave the headlines, but even more excited that she now has even more content to use the line “I made that b**** famous” in a song.
Harold Fuson is a sophomore at Pitzer College from Washington, DC. After his Fantasy Football team went down 130-50 last Sunday, he shifted all of his energy towards this story and hasn’t looked back.
Ansley Washburn is a sophomore at Scripps College from Boston, MA. She did not know who Kelce was until a few days ago, but was easily convinced to write after she heard Harold utter the syllable “Tay-.”
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