Back in September, Taylor Swift sparked a media frenzy when she hard-launched her relationship with Travis Kelce by showing up at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, to support his team, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Since then, Taylor has become a regular fixture in VIP suites at Travis’s games, and television channels have come under fire for how often they cut to Taylor during their broadcasts of the sport.
The commentators also reference Taylor throughout Kansas City Chiefs games, and the NFL even faced backlash when it changed its Twitter banner to a trio of reaction shots of Taylor.
In addition, streams of Swifties have started to attend Travis’s games in hopes of seeing their idol, wearing merch or holding banners that reference the fact that they are only there for Taylor.
And it seems as though all of the above might be bothering football fans, who loudly booed Taylor when she was shown onscreen during the Kansas City Chiefs game against the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Taylor was watching from a VIP suite alongside her dad, Scott Swift, and Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Travis’s teammate Patrick Mahomes. The game was at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and organizers added a quote from Taylor to the screen as they broadcast her to the masses.
“Gillette Stadium is the most joyful place on Earth,” the quote read — but it didn’t look like she was having a “joyful” experience.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one attendee shared a video of the moment when the crowd erupted into audible boos as soon as Taylor appeared on the screen.
The star looked as if she was trying to brush the reaction off as she nonchalantly rested her chin on her hand. Taylor then turned to Brittany and shrugged, pointedly gesturing to the crowd with her eyes and seemingly saying, “I knew this was coming.”
And this negative response wasn’t limited to Taylor herself: One of Taylor’s fans said on social media that she was also “harassed” by Patriots supporters for attending the game wearing Taylor merchandise.
She tweeted, “bad experience. @GilletteStadium has always been my home base and my favorite stadium as a born+raised massachusetts girl but tonight at the @Patriots game i was harassed & audibly booed for being a fan of the opposing team and wearing a jacket with my lifelong idol on it.”
She said that the entire situation was “extremely stressful” and “continued to escalate” throughout the game until she left her section “because of the extent of the literal bullying.”
She added, “i had men directly behind me right in my ear as well as many rows behind me in my section yelling that i was stupid for being a fan of taylor and many other nasty things that i won’t even put on here for me and honestly taylors sake. it was horrendous.”
Needless to say, the whole thing has unsettled Taylor’s fans, with one sharing a clip of the singer’s somewhat accepting reaction and writing, “‘I knew it was coming’ i will personally fight everyone that booed taylor.”
“taylor being booed at the chiefs game tonight is so ridiculous…. people need to relearn how to be decent human beings,” another wrote.
One more added, “I just KNOW if taylor finds out some of her fans were booed out of their section at the chiefs/pats game today simply for being fans of her she would throw a fit omfg.”
But some argued that while the situation was undeniably unpleasant, it probably wasn’t personal, as they pointed out that it’s par for the course for football fans to boo supporters of the opposing team.
“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 tweeted.
“how do you not understand why Taylor Swift was booed?” somebody else echoed. “She represents the Chiefs in a game at Gillette.”
Taylor has not publicly acknowledged what happened during Sunday’s game, but earlier this month she did address the amount of attention that she receives when she shows up to support Travis.
Speaking to Time, she said of the extensive coverage, “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.”
And reacting to the criticism of how often she is shown, Taylor added, “I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”
