Taylor Swift has now attended seven of her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs games this NFL season, but her frequent presence hasn’t yet won over every football fan (or, as Swift herself put it in her recent Time profile, every “dad, Brad, and Chad” who might be miffed by her highly publicized VIP booth attendances).
On Sunday afternoon, announcers at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, called out Swift’s presence at the Patriots-Chiefs matchup; on TV, chyrons above and below her read “Welcome Back to Gillette Stadium” and included a quote of her own: “Gillette Stadium is the most joyful place on Earth.” Upon seeing her on the Jumbotron, however, the audience spoiled the mood by greeting the pop star with a chorus of jeering boos.
Whether ironically intended or not, the boos were very New England. Swift—who was seated next to her father, Scott Swift, and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ wife, Brittany—flapped the crowd an ironic wave and blew everyone a red-lipped kiss. Lip readers caught that she seemingly quipped to Brittany Mahomes, “I knew it was coming.”
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Later, Mahomes posted a picture of a “dads, Brads, and Chads” cookie on Instagram, and Swift, ever a good sport, was photographed tipping food runners at the stadium with $100 bills.
Ever since Swift attended her first Chiefs game in September, she has been at odds with NFL fans, some of whom consider her heavily hyped appearances a distraction from the game. In her Time magazine profile, however, she brushed off the criticism.
“I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in. There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once,” she said. “I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”
In happier news for Swift and Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the New England Patriots 27-17. So at least Swift’s presence at the game wasn’t for naught.
