Longtime NBC Sports broadcaster Al Michaels will not be a part of the network’s NFL Playoff coverage this year, and one conspiracy theory purports to know what might be to blame for that decision: Taylor Swift.
A conspiracy theory has spread this week baselessly suggesting that Michaels could have been removed from NBC’s playoff coverage as a result of some comments that were critical of the amount of attention that Swift received during NFL broadcasts this season.
Swift, of course, began dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce this year and has been seen at several Chiefs games this season in support of her new boyfriend. Given the 12-time Grammy winner’s worldwide fame, her sudden attachment to the NFL and her presence at games led to a surge in ratings.
NBC was quick to cater to its newfound Swifie audience with a Swift-themed intro to its broadcast of the Chiefs game against the New York Jets and showing her many times throughout the game.
Michaels, however, did not seem happy with all the attention that Swift was getting during NFL broadcasts, referring to Swift as a “sideshow” in an October interview with Sports Illustrated.
“What we’re gonna do tonight, everything in moderation,” Michaels told SI’s Jimmy Traina. “Our crew talked about it this morning. You can’t make a sideshow the show.
“The vast majority of the audience are tuning in to watch a football game. There are people, I don’t know how many, it could be a sizable number, but it’s certainly not a majority, that if you trained the camera on her all night long, they’d be satisfied with that. This is not what we’re doing to do.
“There might be an appropriate shot or a couple. I don’t know what the number is going to be. If Kelce scores six touchdowns, who the hell knows what we’re going to do. But for the most part, just in moderation. The game is still the important element here, by far. That’s our thought. After that, you sort of make it, one of my favorite words, farcical.”
The conspiracy theory suggests that NBC was not happy with Michaels calling Swift a “sideshow” as the network has a desire to cater to Swift’s massive audience of Swifties.
Obviously, this theory is just baseless speculation. In reality, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post said the relationship between NBC and Michaels had been strained for a while for reasons unrelated to his opinions on Swift.
But that’s unlikely to stop folks from speculating regardless.
