Swift zipped across globe to see Kelce at Super Bowl
LOS ANGELES – American pop music icon Taylor Swift is reportedly ready to make a lightning trip from Japan in February to see boyfriend Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
Swift and Kelce, both 34, exchanged a lingering on-field embrace on Jan 28 after the reigning champion Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens 17-10 to book their fourth trip in five years to the National Football League’s (NFL) championship extravaganza, which will be held on Feb 11 in Las Vegas.
American pundit Ian Rapoport of NFL Network and NFL.com, citing unnamed sources, said Swift will be there – even though she has an Eras tour performance in Tokyo the night before the big game.
In a video posted on X before the Chiefs-Ravens game, Rapoport explains the international travel maths, reckoning Swift can finish a performance in Tokyo, hop on a plane and make it to Vegas “just in time to party”.
Her presence would pump up the volume on what is already one of the biggest annual events on the American calendar.
Swift has smashed industry records in 2024 with her tour, which is estimated to bring in almost US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion) along with a film of the musical cavalcade.
Amid her blossoming romance with Kelce, the Chiefs’ superstar tight end, she has also found time to attend a string of NFL games, bringing America’s most popular spectator sport a new wave of fans as her hundreds of millions of social media followers trace her every move.
From her first appearance at a game in Kansas City in September – when she sat in a luxury box with Kelce’s mother, Donna, fueling rumors of a romance – the NFL has unapologetically embraced the Swift phenomenon.
“The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news has been a pop cultural moment we’ve leaned into in real time,” the league said in a statement responding to early criticism of the breathless coverage surrounding Swift’s arrival on the NFL scene.
“It’s an intersection of sport and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport,” it said.
By the time the American Football Conference (AFC) Championship game rolled around on Jan 28, Swift had become a regular presence at Chiefs games.
Her celebration with Kelce and the rest of the team provided a joyous end to a week in which artificial intelligence-generated fake porn images purporting to be of Swift sparked outrage. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the images “alarming”.
One of the images was seen some 47 million times on X before being removed. As of Jan 28, the platform was still not allowing searches of Swift’s name.
There were still plenty of posts, however, about Swift and the Super Bowl, most of them illustrated with the tender post-game moment she shared with Kelce.
Kelce caught 11 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown, surpassing the legendary Jerry Rice in the record books for most all-time post-season catches.
Swift was by Kelce’s side as he hoisted the AFC Championship trophy, quoting not his sweetheart but the Beastie Boys when he yelled: “You’ve gotta fight for your right to party!” – AFP
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