On Sunday, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs will probably be making the group’s fourth Tremendous Bowl look within the final 5 seasons. Whereas some N.F.L. gamers go their whole profession with out enjoying for a championship, considered one of Kansas Metropolis’s newcomers had their ticket punched after solely 12 video games.
As Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic mentioned on X, shortly after the Chiefs’ championship win: “Taylor Swift makes the Tremendous Bowl in her first yr within the league. Elite.”
Ms. Swift, who has been courting Travis Kelce, Kansas Metropolis’s star tight finish, has modified the N.F.L. dialog all season, attracting a brand new viewers for the league and provoking sturdy feelings (each optimistic and detrimental) amongst followers. Her critics in addition to her detractors might have some burning questions forward of the sport. Before everything, they puzzled if she can be there.
As anticipated, she is on the stadium and prepared for the sport.
So she’s really there?
Ms. Swift, as you could have heard, is sweet at protecting secrets and techniques. Her plans, past live performance dates, are not often introduced upfront. That has led some to plot their very own strategies for determining what she’s as much as. Forward of a Kansas Metropolis sport in October, for instance, an NBC producer mentioned he had a spotter airplane looking the realm round MetLife Stadium for police escorts in hopes of alerting the tv crew if she confirmed up (she did).
Mr. Kelce was inundated with questions on Ms. Swift final week, and whereas he mentioned he had heard a few of her upcoming album — spoiler: he likes it — he didn’t supply any particulars about whether or not she can be on the sport.
However her airplane was noticed in Los Angeles on Saturday and she or he arrived at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday afternoon in time for the sport. She walked the tunnels of the stadium sporting a black high and pants whereas carrying a pink jacket over her shoulder after which headed as much as the posh suites. Earlier than the sport, she was seen speaking to, amongst others, Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the N.F.L., who final week referred to as her a “dynamo.”
“Every little thing she touches, there are individuals following,” Mr. Goodell mentioned at his annual information convention. “We rely ourselves lucky, and we welcome it.”
However wasn’t she in Tokyo … final night time?
She positive was. Her Eras Tour resumed not too long ago, and on Saturday night time in Tokyo she carried out yet one more marathon set of her in depth catalog of songs. With flights from Tokyo to Las Vegas typically taking 13 hours or extra, and human beings requiring sleep, some nervous she won’t make the sport.
The Japanese Embassy in Washington identified that timing was not an actual hurdle for Ms. Swift. To start with, a personal jet shortens the journey (and supplies a spot to sleep peacefully if wanted). Second of all, the worldwide date line was her good friend.
In 1873, earlier than the worldwide date line formally existed, the writer Jules Verne mapped out Ms. Swift’s time benefit in “Across the World in 80 Days.” Within the ebook, the protagonist Phileas Fogg believes he has misplaced his wager solely to appreciate the space and path of his travels had saved him:
In journeying eastward he had gone in direction of the solar, and the times due to this fact diminished for him as many instances 4 minutes as he crossed levels on this path. There are 300 and sixty levels on the circumference of the earth; and these 300 and sixty levels, multiplied by 4 minutes, offers exactly twenty-four hours — that’s, the day unconsciously gained. In different phrases, whereas Phileas Fogg, going eastward, noticed the solar move the meridian eighty instances, his associates in London solely noticed it move the meridian seventy-nine instances. Because of this they awaited him on the Reform Membership on Saturday, and never Sunday, as Mr. Fogg thought.
Or, as “The West Wing” summarized extra succinctly in a scene that mentioned President Bartlett’s journey from Tokyo to Washington, D.C. (and that not too long ago went viral on-line):
Josh: He’s gonna land in Washington an hour earlier than he took off?Sam: Yeah.
For older generations, these scenes helped clarify the logistics of the worldwide date line. For Gen Z and youthful, their body of reference will seemingly be … when Taylor Swift flew to Las Vegas for the Tremendous Bowl.
In the course of the common season, Ms. Swift attended quite a few video games in Kansas Metropolis whereas seated in a luxurious suite managed by Mr. Kelce’s shut good friend and longtime teammate, Patrick Mahomes. She appeared to turn into quick associates with Mr. Mahomes’s spouse, Brittany, and was commonly seen with different members of the Mahomes household.
She has additionally hung out at video games with Mr. Kelce’s dad and mom, Donna and Ed, and her personal father, mom and brother got here together with her to a sport on Christmas. Throughout Ms. Swift’s journey to New Jersey for a Chiefs-Jets sport she was seated with associates just like the actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Full of life.
At a playoff sport in Buffalo final month, she and Kylie Kelce have been amongst these proven reacting to Jason Kelce’s shirtless bellowing and fraternizing with the group.
And on the A.F.C. championship sport in Baltimore, she was surrounded by Mr. Kelce’s household and associates, together with Donna and Ed Kelce, Jason and Kylie Kelce and Mr. Kelce’s managers, Aaron and André Eanes. There have been additionally a couple of of Ms. Swift’s associates, just like the actress Keleigh Teller and the mannequin Cara Delevingne.
For the Tremendous Bowl, it was an identical crowd, with the Kelces, the Eanes brothers and Ms. Full of life there with Ms. Swift and her household. An addition to the crew was the rapper Ice Spice, who entered the stadium this afternoon with Ms. Swift.
Why is that this getting a lot consideration?
Nobody ever appeared to thoughts Jack Nicholson being a fixture at Los Angeles Lakers video games, or Spike Lee being extra related to the New York Knicks than many of the group’s gamers. Drake bought solely a slap on the wrist when he started strolling onto the courtroom throughout timeouts at Toronto Raptors playoff video games. However though Ms. Swift receives comparatively little airtime in the course of the broadcasts of Kansas Metropolis’s video games, she has turn into a goal for individuals who nonetheless suppose she’s getting outsize consideration.
“The eye is there as a result of the viewers desires to see it,” Jason Kelce, brother of Travis, mentioned in an interview throughout final week’s Professional Bowl festivities. “If individuals didn’t wish to see it they wouldn’t be exhibiting it.”
As Ms. Swift put it, “a couple of dads, Brads, and Chads” could also be offended, however the TV networks are thrilled. A rankings evaluation by The Upshot indicated that she very properly could also be a driving issue for the league’s elevated viewers. Coach Andy Reid of the Chiefs has repeatedly mentioned that he’s glad to have her round, and the N.F.L., which is having fun with an surprising enlargement of its built-in viewers, has totally embraced her affiliation with the league.
“N.F.L. followers are available in every kind — even world sensations,” mentioned Alex Riethmiller, an N.F.L. spokesman. “We’re glad to have Taylor on board.”
That is Taylor, absolutely there’s some numerology concerned?
Ms. Swift has mentioned she loves the quantity 13, and her followers can seemingly discover it in every single place. Within the case of this yr’s Tremendous Bowl, the examples are plentiful:
Tremendous Bowl 58 (5+8=13)
Feb. 11, 2/11 (2+11=13)
Kansas Metropolis is enjoying the 49ers (4+9=13)
The 49ers have been the No. 1 seed within the N.F.C., whereas the Chiefs have been the No. 3 seed within the A.F.C. (1 and three — 13)
That is the thirteenth N.F.L. sport Ms. Swift has attended this season
It’s unclear if it’s a good or dangerous signal that San Francisco’s beginning quarterback, Brock Purdy, wears No. 13. Time will inform.