The biggest story coming out of week 3 in the NFL is the burgeoning relationship between Kansas City Chiefs’ All-Pro TE Travis Kelce and pop superstar Taylor Swift, and Dallas Cowboys’ All-Pro LB Micah Parsons is hyped. Parsons has a message for his fellow brethren, their time is now.
The Challenge Has Been Made
“The NFL, we up right now. City boys is up,” Parsons said. “I challenge all my other NFL guys, start shooting from deep. Shooting from deep. Let’s see if someone can get somebody like, I don’t know. I gotta think about this. We gotta start shooting, brother. Publicly shooting.
“Zendaya, shoot at Zendaya, something. We gotta start going, brothers. I think Trav set the standard for this.”
It’s true. Kelce publicly took his shot at Swift and there she was at Arrowhead Stadium last Sunday, in a suite with Kelce’s mom watching the game. The All-Pro caught a touchdown pass and left the stadium with Swift after the Chiefs’ 41-10 beatdown of the Chicago Bears.
“I think he wanted to get in the end zone just as much as all the Swifties wanted him to,” MVP QB Patrick Mahomes said.
The Taylor Swift Effect
NFL players, by and large, are less popular on social media and in the pop culture space as compared to their NBA counterparts. The helmets and proximity of fans to the field in football create a sort of barrier NBA players don’t have to deal with.
But if this Kelce-Swift thing is real and not some stunt, Parsons is right. The NFL is hot right now in the public space and players should shoot their shots where appropriate.
“When I originally heard about that, I said, ‘Man, he shot from deep. He shot from deep,'” Parsons said. “Now, T-Kelce is my boy and I sought him out a couple of times, and that boy’s a dawg. He’s a dawg.”
Parsons also confirmed that he is an OG Swiftie.
Swift’s presence at the game and support of Kelce, caused a spike in the TE’s jersey sales. According to sportswear and fan merchandise company Fanatics, Kelce’s jersey was one of the top five for the NFL on Sunday. His jersey had a 400 percent spike in sales.
This makes for great press for the NFL and no doubt people at league headquarters on Park Avenue in NYC are working to figure out how to capitalize.
But it should not distract from the fact that the league is currently involved in two lawsuits, with former NFL Network employee Jim Trotter and Minnesota Vikings’ defensive coordinator Brian Flores over racial discrimination.
