WELCOME TO A TRAVIS + TAYLOR SUPER BOWL — BUT NEVER FORGET MAHOMES
With a postgame scene dominating social media and American discussions, Travis Kelce wins the AFC championship amid loads of on-field affection from Taylor Swift, with CBS pummeling our brains with it
First a hug, then a kiss, then a flutter, and then exquisite swoons smeared with bad blood across a flummoxed romantic world. With the sight of Travis Kelce in his dirty uniform and Taylor Swift in her red Kansas City Chiefs sweater, smooching their lips on a quiet field in Baltimore, we’re being poured headfirst into love and football and whatever America has become in 2024.
“The Chiefs are still the Chiefs!” Kelce yelled to 50 million viewers as Swift stood in the mob, tears in her eyes, perhaps unaware of what was coming from the podium. “And believe it — you’ve got to fight for your right to party! Believe it, baby, we’re going to Las Vegas! We’re gonna go get us another one!”
Later, he posted, “Yeah I’m never getting over this,” with a sunny face and a red heart among three new pictures of the darlings. At one point, Swift says, “Papa,” as his father greets him and cameras invade and another hug happens. Kelce says often, “What’s up, sweetie?”
The asskicker meets a crooner. Obviously, as CBS lushes and rigs its calculator, this won’t be another NFL championship game. The Chiefs will attempt to win their second straight Super Bowl, not done since the 2003-04 New England Patriots, and a third title in five seasons. They’re ready to tap the d-word on dynasty, and poised to watch are gazillions of Swifties, trying to avoid fainting as the heavenly body behind heartfelt lyricism keeps supporting her lover. She’ll make it back from an Eras Tour stop in Tokyo, no worries, only 35 minutes before kickoff. Will he win another for her?
Well, let’s pull a bewitching tale back to the 58th version of a game that already magnifies society’s celebratory ways. First, they are not football manhandlers. One is from Texas, the other from Cleveland Heights, and what they grasped about popular culture was lightweight until Kelce went to a concert and saw Swift’s cousins taking photos at his locker in Arrowhead Stadium. He tried to give her a friendship bracelet with digits of his phone number, before they were shooed off and he used a podcast to “adorably put me on blast,” as she told Time. Welcome to a romance that has sent all kinds of emotions through life. And through it all, Patrick Mahomes merely is the two-time MVP of the league and the country’s biggest on-demand athlete.
Their friendship became more magnified Sunday, when Mahomes found Kelce for 11 catches, 116 yards and a scoring pass in a decided 17-10 romp over the Ravens. Up in a suite in M&T Bank Stadium, Swift sent signals to Kelce — 10 fingers after the touchdown — while celebrating with Mahomes’ wife and celebrity friends. It wouldn’t be the wisest ploy in a blur made messy by social media, but somehow this season, Kelce has returned to the biggest game and carried on a massive love affair thanks largely to Mahomes. He wanted Lamar Jackson all week, knowing the quarterback would win his own MVP trophy though meaningful games were left to play. Jackson would end the day 2-4 in the playoffs. A legend? Not yet. His team was a top seed exposed in the rain, even as John Harbaugh was observed by his brother, Jim, thanks to a blitzing Chiefs defense that forced a bad Jackson interception and swept away the ball from Zay Flowers.
“We have dogs in that locker room. When the playoffs came around, I knew we were gonna make it happen,” Mahomes said. “Now we’re in the Super Bowl. The job is not done.”
“I’ve never doubted, no,” said coach Andy Reid, who goes down in lore for putting the pair together. “That’s not how we roll.”
Never in their championship existence have the Chiefs been a better all-around operation, thanks to defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Mahomes has been waiting for this moment, maybe thinking he’s trying to win his third title at 28 when Tom Brady needed 43 whole years to win his seven. But first, he and Kelce made a pregame statement that shouldn’t have stunned anyone. Long before game time, the all-time kicker of the Ravens, Justin Tucker, left equipment near the goal line. It was time for Mahomes to loosen up, so Kelce walked over, kicked one of Tucker’s balls and threw away two others, along with a helmet. Tucker continued to do stretches, looking at the duo, and after Mahomes heaved, he kicked a holding device. Kelce came over and separated them, and as Tucker pointed to the other side of the field, he suggested they warm up there, Mahomes saw the device again, leaned over and flipped it away. Tucker never got off a kick.
He had only one in the game, too late to matter. Kelce’s receptions broke Jerry Rice’s career postseason record. Between those scenes and the Swift craziness afterward, it might explain why Mahomes told Jim Nantz, “Bring in the big guy.” In sports, where one-on-one jealousies happen for no reason, the Chiefs had every reason to struggle while waiting for her to appear at games. Instead, they rallied as the AFC’s No. 3 seed and won in Buffalo and Baltimore, as her private plane battled winter weather.
“He’s still Travis Kelce,” Mahomes said. “He still will walk through the stadium and treat every single person like they’re his best friend. And he’s going to be like that in the locker room every single day. He has just been himself the whole time. Travis has always been Travis.
“He’s one of those guys that loves the challenge. When the lights get brighter, he plays better. That’s the true mark of a champion, and that’s what he is.”
Said Reid: “He just brings that emotion to the guys — a secure feeling that we’re going to go get this thing no matter what and don’t think of anything opposite that. We’re going to get it.”
Let’s see if 335 million Americans are still enthused. It’s nice to see them in love, but her look was nasty when comedian Jo Koy made fun of her at an awards show, saying, “The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift.” We know CBS is planning Swift coverage with Super Bowl coverage, which won’t please exaggerated machismo in the viewing audience.
Former Super Bowl champion Tony Dungy, an NBC commentator at the moment, lashed out at the Swift effect. “That’s the thing that is disenchanting people with sports now,” he said. “There’s so much on the outside coming in. Entertainment value and different things that’s taking away from what really happens on the field.”
This caused another broadcaster, the NFL Network’s Rich Eisen, to fire back. “What is the matter with people? The toxic masculinity that shows up in my Twitter timeline, my X timeline, because she’s having fun at a football game. I honestly don’t understand it,” he said. “She’s literally one of the most famous people on the planet at a football game, seemingly enjoying herself. She’s never going to be anonymous the rest of her life. What is she supposed to do? As a matter of fact, this is the greatest thing ever. There’s a whole bunch of people that normally don’t watch football games that are watching just to see her on the screen. Put her up there.”
Oh, she’ll be there. How nice if CBS let her enjoy her life experience, without intruding constantly into her suite, but that isn’t the way modern media work. Many viewers want to see her, while some do not, and they will cue to the rage that lifts the ratings past the all-time high of 115.1 million. This will be the first Super Bowl ever to swirl around someone beyond an all-time quarterback.
Taylor is bigger. So is Travis. Ready for it?
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.