Chiefs are 2-0 as Swifties via @JosinaAnderson on X

If you’re a New York Jets fan, there’s a good chance you were frustrated with the outcome of Sunday Night Football this week. Despite Zach Wilson putting together the best-ever performance in three years in the NFL, New York fell 23-20 to Kansas City. Thanks to a couple of egregious calls, the Jets were at the other end of what could’ve been the upset of the season thus far.

Naturally, you’d expect that more than a handful of Jets fans were under the impression that the fix is in.  That the cursed franchise who finally gets a competent performance from its embattled young quarterback, not only had to deal with playing the reigning Super Bowl champs, but deal with a few calls from officials that directly impacted the game. That’s without mentioning Taylor Swift, who was in attendance at MetLife Stadium to support her rumored boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

The league leaned even more into the unlikely relationship between the NFL and Swifties, by including a throw-away comment in their Instagram bio. It appears that every week, the bio is updated to reflect what transpired the week before, and Swift happens to be the biggest story in not just football, but sports itself at the moment.

The bio read: “Chiefs are 2-0 as swifties.”

https://twitter.com/uSTADIUM/status/1708706816744419647?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1708706816744419647%7Ctwgr%5Eb149db2d0392b5ea77756a934d8e3caefe5d22cb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FuSTADIUM2Fstatus2F1708706816744419647widget%3DTweet

Harmless, right?

Now, the NFL has leaned into the pop star sensation being at the forefront of the headlines. Swift being in attendance for back-to-back Chiefs games has been a ratings boost for Fox and likely will have a similar outcome for NBC. We’re not going to be naive here and pretend that the NFL wouldn’t have loved for Kelce to catch two touchdowns in a dominating fashion, as Swift danced around a celebrity-filled box.

We’re also not going to put on our tinfoil hats and suggest that the NFL had something to do with the final outcome of the game. The Chiefs found a way to win because they have the best player in the league as their quarterback. Yes, they benefitted from a handful of calls that went their way, including a holding call on what would’ve been Patrick Mahomes’ third interception of the game. But, the Jets also had other opportunities to put away Sunday’s game, as Wilson’s late fourth-quarter fumble ended up being the last time Gang Green’s offense possessed the football.

These things happen. But you also have to know that a frustrated fanbase, which has been starved for little slivers of happiness since Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending Achilles injury, would look for reasons or someone to blame for Sunday’s loss, when neither Wilson nor the defense, which allowed just three second-half points, could be blamed.

But the NFL opened itself up to criticism with the Instagram bio, which was likely produced by a social media staffer, who had no direct impact on anything related to what transpired in the Jets-Chiefs game on Sunday. At the same time, you can’t expect conspiracy theorists and those who were looking for someone to blame, to not point their finger at the league.

“This not a good look by the NFL,” writes Brian Costello of The New York Post on Twitter/X. “This sort of thing fuels the conspiracy theories.”

First, let’s take a look at some of the calls that had Jets fans up in arms.

https://twitter.com/BadSportsRefs/status/1708679868630630438?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1708679868630630438%7Ctwgr%5E6010a96aa3623541b3c92a5d2b196708dd5c594d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FBadSportsRefs2Fstatus2F1708679868630630438widget%3DTweet

And based on all three of those outcomes, there’s a legitimate gripe to be had. It’s why Jets head coach Robert Saleh received a penalty at the end of the game, and later refused to comment on some of these egregiously bad misses during his postgame press conference.

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1708689536736522330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1708689536736522330%7Ctwgr%5Ec4c0c18e4fd2c6f644bcf710f46d7da86a0db9af%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2Fawfulannouncing2Fstatus2F1708689536736522330widget%3DTweet

Gardner later took to social media to respond to the official NFL Instagram account’s stance, stating that perhaps if he were Swiftie, the ref wouldn’t have thrown the flag.

https://twitter.com/iamSauceGardner/status/1708931288302858380?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1708931288302858380%7Ctwgr%5Ee23f72a19e2a0e4d1429f670e3c7acefcb5e7fbe%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FiamSauceGardner2Fstatus2F1708931288302858380widget%3DTweet

We don’t think the NFL did this intentionally, but it’s not a great look when the game was decided by a controversial outcome with the most popular person on the planet in attendance, seemingly rooting for the other team. Some self-awareness would help. And after receiving plenty of backlash, up and down social media, the NFL decided to take down the bio, succumbing to those who were strongly accusing them of colluding with Swifties.

Again, there is a 99.9 percent chance that there is NOT an ulterior motive at play here, but why give those who want a reason that 0.01 percent chance to think there is one?

The NFL is smart for leaning into as many Taylor Swift things as it possibly can, but this seems like a pretty simple thing to avoid. Doing things like this only opens you up to the trolls.

And it’s not to say that if the Chiefs lost, Swift wouldn’t have been blamed. She very likely would have! We understand that it’s a lose-lose scenario, but we promise you that there’s a way to lean into Taylor Swift being a part of the Chiefs kingdom without pissing off a fanbase and giving others excuses to perpetuate claims that the NFL rigs games.

Now, you’ve made this more of a mess than it needs to be. Nobody needs to lose their livelihood over this and we don’t need to make it a bigger deal than it actually is, but having the slightest bit of self-awareness would be nice.

[Rich Cimini, Brian Costello on X]

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.