{"id":83476,"date":"2025-08-26T06:30:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T06:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=83476"},"modified":"2025-08-26T06:30:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T06:30:33","slug":"is-the-taylor-swift-effect-hurting-the-kc-chiefs-%f0%9f%a4%ab-a-growing-narrative-suggests-the-massive-attention-on-her-is-distracting-the-players-keeping-them-from-being-100-focused-on-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=83476","title":{"rendered":"Is the &#8220;Taylor Swift Effect&#8221; hurting the KC Chiefs? \ud83e\udd2b A growing narrative suggests the massive attention on her is distracting the players, keeping them from being 100% focused on the game. What&#8217;s the real story?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Skip Bayless Suggests Taylor Swift Is Stealing &#8216;Focus&#8217; From KC Chiefs By Stephanie Kaloi Celebrity News: Latest Celeb News &amp; Pictures &#8211; Us Weekly Updated August 25, 2025 10:07 PM Gift Article Sports journalist Skip Bayless says he&#8217;s &#8220;really tired&#8221; of Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and even Brittany Mahomes &#8211; and so is his wife, Ernestine Sclafani Bayless.<\/p>\n<p>Skip and Ernestine shared a video of themselves discussing and dissecting the Kansas City Chiefs as well as Kelce, Swift and even Brittany Mahomes via X on Friday, August 22.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/popculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/49c9b932-9a88-4b22-88be-eea59e7bb14d.jpg?w=1200\" alt=\"Skip Bayless Says Taylor Swift Is a 'Distraction' at Kansas City Chiefs Games - PopCulture.com\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em> &#8220;I dread football and I knew it was coming because I know once July stops and now it&#8217;s August and then these preseason games start. I dread it because it goes till February and I know it and I&#8217;m like, God,&#8221;<\/em> Ernestine began.<\/p>\n<p><em> &#8220;But this year I was really dreading the reemerging of Taylor Swift with Travis Kelce. I just, that was to me, I dreaded that as much as dreaded this because I mean, this is just, it&#8217;s actually been nice that they haven&#8217;t been all over the place.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>She asked of the pair, &#8220;Isn&#8217;t anybody else sick of it?&#8221; Skip appeared to agree, interjecting, &#8220;Travis Kelce catches a pass, shot of Taylor up in the box, cheering wildly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And then we go into the Mahomes thing with the wife, and it&#8217;s like, this is bigger than football.<\/p>\n<p>It really is now, the focus is more on them as opposed to football,&#8221; Ernestine added. (Brittany, 29, has been married to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomessince March 2022.) Ernestine added that she &#8220;doesn&#8217;t mind&#8221; Swift, 35, &#8220;being a singer&#8221; but questioned why her relationship with Kelce, also 35, has had to &#8220;become so overblown.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not as though she&#8217;s the first celebrity dating an athlete.<\/p>\n<p>And I know that she&#8217;s larger than life and I know she&#8217;s bigger than anybody in the world, but it just becomes so \u2026 emphasized,&#8221; she added. KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI &#8211; JANUARY 26: Taylor Swift celebrates with Travis Kelce #87 of the Kansas City Chiefs after defeating the Buffalo Bills 32-29 in the AFC Championship Game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on January 26, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri.<\/p>\n<p><em> (Photo by Jamie Squire\/Getty Images) Jamie Squire Getty Images Taylor Swift and Travis KelceJamie Squire\/Getty Images Skip claimed that Kelce is &#8220;on the downside of his career&#8221; and is likely to retire this season.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s been shrewd on her part to couple with him because it&#8217;s a great look for her to be with the tough big football player. It&#8217;s a good fit,&#8221; he said of Swift.<\/p>\n<p>But that wasn&#8217;t enough for Ernestine, who later added, &#8220;Now she&#8217;s going to be there at every game.<\/p>\n<p>It was bad enough that I had to deal with football coming, but now I have to deal with part two, this part. I can take the other stuff; this I can&#8217;t take.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sorry.&#8221; Swift and Kelce have been linked since the summer of September 2023, and the pop singer began attending Chiefs games that September &#8211; to the simultaneous dismay and delight of fans.<\/p>\n<p>While talking about the NFL&#8217;s focus on Swift on his and brother Jason Kelce\u2018s &#8220;New Heights&#8221; podcast in October 2023, Travis said, &#8220;I think it&#8217;s fun when they show who all&#8217;s at the game.<\/p>\n<p>I think it brings a little more to the atmosphere, brings a little bit more to what you&#8217;re watching.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Later that year, Swift told TIME that she&#8217;s not aware of when she&#8217;s on camera at a game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;m being shown 17 times or once. <em>I&#8217;m just there to support Travis.<\/em>&#8221; Kelce commented on the animosity toward Swift in December 2023.<\/p>\n<p><em> &#8220;They went absolutely insane when they showed Taylor on the screen. \u2026 Might have been a few Brads and Chads that were booing, but for the most part, everybody was f-king screaming at Taylor,&#8221; Travis said on the December 20 episode of &#8220;New Heights&#8221; of the first game Swift attended.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was trying to keep it cool, I was like, \u2018Don&#8217;t show your cards.'&#8221; By the time Swift appeared on &#8220;New Heights&#8221; herself on August 13, 2025, it was clear the pair were having more fun with the clashing takes on the singer&#8217;s appearances at games.<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Swift joked, &#8220;As we all know, you guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast. And I think we all know that if there&#8217;s one thing male sports fans want to see in their spaces and on their screens &#8211; it&#8217;s more of me.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Skip Bayless Suggests Taylor Swift Is Stealing &#8216;Focus&#8217; From KC Chiefs By Stephanie Kaloi Celebrity News: Latest Celeb News &amp; Pictures &#8211; Us Weekly Updated August 25,&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":83477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showbiz"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is the &quot;Taylor Swift Effect&quot; hurting the KC Chiefs? \ud83e\udd2b A growing narrative suggests the massive attention on her is distracting the players, keeping them from being 100% focused on the game. 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