‘Didn’t she just add billions to the American economy this year?!?!’ one Swiftie fired back at critics
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Taylor Swift wasn’t surprised when she heard the boos raining down on Sunday in Foxborough as the Kansas City Chiefs took on the New England Patriots.
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The Cruel Summer singer, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, was in the stands sporting a Kansas City sweatshirt and a toque with her two-time Super Bowl winning boyfriend’s jersey number on it.
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And when the pop star’s face was flashed on the jumbotron, she was mercilessly booed by the Pats faithful. This despite her declaration that “Gillette Stadium is the most joyful place on earth” when she played the venue earlier this year.
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But Swift, who was watching the game with her dad Scott and Patrick Mahomes’ wife Brittany, anticipated the harsh reception as she was captured grinning on camera as she said, “I knew it was coming.”
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In an interview with TIME earlier this month after the magazine declared her its Person of the Year, Swift maintained that she is unaware when she is being shown on TV.
“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.
She added that she’s “just there to support Travis” and has found herself a newfound fan of football.
“I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads … Football is awesome, it turns out … I’ve been missing out my whole life,” she joked.
Swift has been a fixture at Kelce’s games since first attending in person to watch him play in September. Her appearance has lead to an increase in TV ratings and her romance with the eight-time Pro Bowler saw his jersey sales shoot up nearly 400%.
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But Swift told TIME that they were already a couple by the time she showed up at Arrowhead Stadium for the very first time.
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Swift, 34, told the magazine. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”
Still, while her appearances have brought non-loving football fans into the NFL fold, diehard fans have grown tiresome of the intense focus on her during the games.
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Swifties quickly rallied to the singer’s defence, lashing out at her vocal critics.
“They should be cheering her,” one person wrote on social media. “Didn’t she just add billions to the American economy this year?!?!”
“Taylor Swift is the American sweetheart and nothing can ever change that,” another swiped.
But other watchers said it wasn’t personal, and Swift got booed just as any other fan wearing the opposing team’s colours would have.
“Look, I love Taylor but her fans need to relax over her getting booed. She was representing the opposing team. Sports fans boo their rivals and those supporting them. It’s not personal,” one person wrote.
The Chiefs improved to 5-2 with Swift in attendance as they went on to win 27-17.
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Kelce caught five passes for 28 yards, but he grabbed the biggest headlines when he was snapped gazing at a poster of his girlfriend inside Gillette Stadium.
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As they sank to 3-11 on the season, Patriots players didn’t have much to say about her attendance Sunday. But after the Bills beat the Chiefs last weekend, rookie tight end Dalton Kincaid said he thought the win might lead her to immortalize Buffalo in a song.
“I mean, I’m sure she’s upset,” Kincaid said. “Maybe we’ll have a song written about the game.”
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