For much of this season, one of the dominant storylines around the Kansas City Chiefs has been the presence of Taylor Swift at games, cheering on the team from a suite, now that she’s dating star tight end Travis Kelce.
Swift’s impact on the NFL and the Chiefs has been well-documented, as it’s drawn in a different audience to Chiefs games, as her legion of fans tune in to just about anything where Swift makes an appearance. There’s also been plenty of debate in the sports media world about whether Swift was a distraction of sorts for the Chiefs, as Kansas City labored through a rough patch in the middle of the season before finding their form for another postseason run.
Former Super Bowl champion quarterback Steve Young is fascinated by the psychology of football and what goes on in locker rooms, and as he explained to Kevin Clark on Wednesday at the Super Bowl, he thinks there was merit to the distraction questions early in the year. However, Young believes Swift’s presence now works in the Chiefs favor because they’re used to the noise and attention, and now they’re “more dangerous” because of it and if it’s a distraction for anyone, it’s the opposing team (5:00 mark of the below video).
Interesting perspective from Steve Young on THIS IS FOOTBALL about this Chiefs team: how they got better on offense as the season went along, Mahomes, Kelce and why he thought Taylor Swift was a "distraction" in the first half of the year and why she's now their "superpower." pic.twitter.com/XfOgHxnAf0
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) February 7, 2024
“100 percent, because when you’re that famous, everyone’s now Twitter-pated. Players, equipment men, coaches, staff, locker room attendants, so it creates it’s own energy and drama and distraction,” Young said. “It’s just inevitable. The idea that you didn’t feel that weight on that team in the first half of the season is just not in reality. So, I really feel like why they’re coming into this game in a really powerful position is handling that unique challenge in a way that…Like, you saw in the Championship Game on the thing, Andy [Reid]’s pointing hat her and she’s pointing at him, and she’s part of the family now. That’s a powerful place rather than a distraction. Now it’s your distraction, it’s not mine. And I just think they’re much more dangerous today for the Super Bowl because of that.”
It’s a fascinating perspective from Young, and while it’s a bit funny to say Swift is helping the Chiefs be “more dangerous,” I can absolutely buy into the idea that learning to focus internally on the task at hand with chaos around you externally in terms of media and fan attention has been beneficial to the Chiefs this year.
