Former NFL player and Kansas City Chiefs running back Christian Okoye is standing up for Taylor Swift amid the backlash she is receiving for the team’s recent losses.
Fans have been bashing the pop icon, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, accusing her of being a ‘distraction’ at the Chiefs games, but Okoye is saying otherwise.
“She has nothing to do with how the team’s doing right now,” he said, adding, “Taylor Swift is not on the field. Travis is playing like he always plays. … Teams are just doubling up on him now knowing that our receivers are dropping the balls.”
The Kansas City Chiefs have lost four out of their last seven games, and Taylor Swift was in attendance for most (but not all) of them.
The team has not been in sync, and the offensive line needs some work, but fans are placing the blame on the “Love Story” singer instead.
“When you’re doing bad, people have to find excuses and they have to point fingers,” Okoye said, adding, “Especially those who don’t like the situation about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.”
Fans are not the only people to blame Taylor Swift as sports analyst Skip Bayless publicly said, “Feels like it’s about time to call Taylor Swift a distraction. What do you think, Patrick [Mahomes]? Andy [Reid]? How about you, Travis?”
The former NFL player completely disagrees and says that he believes the real reason the Chiefs are not playing as well as in the past is because other teams “figured out if they can double him up and hold [Patrick] Mahomes in the pocket, everything will be all right for them. And that’s what they’re doing.”
Although the Chiefs pulled out the win against the Cincinnati Bengals on New Year’s Eve to clinch the playoffs, their run prior was a bit rough, especially on Christmas Eve when the team played the Las Vegas Raiders.
Following the Christmas Eve game, many fans took to social media to blame Taylor Swift, even comparing her to Yoko Ono, who has been blamed by some for breaking up ‘The Beatles’ after getting with John Lennon.
“Taylor Swift is Yoko Ono-ing the Chiefs,” one person said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Although social media has been bashing the “Red” singer, she is unbothered by the hate, telling Time Magazine that is “just [at the Chiefs games] to support Travis [Kelce].”
“I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in,” she told the outlet.
“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.”
“I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads,” she added.
The Kansas City Chiefs are set to take on the Los Angeles Charges on January 7. There is no word on if Taylor Swift will be in attendance.
