David Carr's attempt at a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce joke ultimately fell flat on NFL Network "NFL Total Access." David Carr’s attempt at a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce joke ultimately fell flat on NFL Network “NFL Total Access.”
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While Trevor Noah’s Taylor Swift-NFL joke landed during the Grammys, David Carr’s attempt at a similar lighthearted approach before the Super Bowl LVIII Opening Ceremony fell flat. Perhaps sticking to analysis might be a safer bet for the NFL Network analyst.

An NFL Total Access segment begging the question, “Who’s going to steal the show at Super Bowl opening night?” saw Carr highlight San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle as a potential star worthy of stealing the show in Las Vegas.

Carr’s attempt at humor connected Taylor Swift’s trip to Japan and her relationship with Travis Kelce, implying she might reconsider her choice if she saw Kittle in action.

“So, I’m glad Taylor Swift is out of the country,” explained Carr, “because if she sees George Kittle, she might rethink the tight end that she chose.”

We’re not exactly sure what this means, either.

While Swift embarks on the international leg of her Eras Tour with upcoming Japan dates, assurances, including one from the Japanese Embassy, indicate her anticipated return to Las Vegas for Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Unfortunately, Carr’s lighthearted reference to Swift and Kelce didn’t land as intended. Viewers found it confusing and ultimately irrelevant to the discussion, leaving them primarily unimpressed with his ill-timed attempt at humor. It was also used as a springboard to make similar assertions about Carr’s football acumen.

The sentiment about Kittle being off the market was also shared by NFL media personality Kimmi Chex, who informed Carr that Kittle is married to his college sweetheart, whom he met as a freshman at the University of Iowa. That seems like an important detail — one Carr could’ve figured out relatively quickly — and prevented himself from putting it off as “That’s my bad.”

Needless to say, Carr’s comments weren’t well received. Many of those in Awful Announcing’s replies and quote tweets lamented his attempt at humor as being “weird,” though some of the comments — which we won’t share — were a bit more pointed than that.

Perhaps the takeaway lesson is that a well-timed analysis is always a safer bet than a risky joke. After all, in the fast-paced world of sports commentary, the goal is to inform and entertain, not to alienate or offend.

[Awful Announcing on X, Photo Credit: NFL Network]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann