Football is one of the most popular sports in America. The highest level that is watched often on television is the National Football League, also commonly known as the NFL. The sport gained nearly 12 billion dollars this year and each game had an average of 17.9 million viewers. It is a huge corporation that almost everyone in America knows about. Recently the attendance of Taylor Swift to the NFL games has been annoying the fans of the sport. Throughout the Kansas City Chiefs’ games, Swift is repeatedly shown on the Jumbotron. Since Kansas City Chiefs’ player Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift started dating over the summer she has been shown at the games.
The Super Bowl was on Sunday February, 12th, and Swift was there to watch the game. The cameras were on Swift 12 times for about 54 seconds of total screen time during the Super Bowl. The players that were on the bench during offense or defense didn’t get that much screen time unless they were on the field playing. Many people, including some students at Rio Norte weren’t happy about Swift getting a minute of screen time and taking away from the players and the game. Lebron James, Beyonce, Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber were some of the famous people there, none of them got close to as much screen time as Swift. It felt like the focus was on Swift instead of the players and the games.
Yuv Tomar, eighth grader and football player and a huge fan expressed his opinion on Taylor being shown more than some players at the Superbowl. “Taylor Swift is a celebrity that shouldn’t be getting that screen time because it takes away from the true essence of football.” He dislikes that Taylor got a minute of screen time during the Super Bowl, which most companies have to pay around 14 million for that same screen time. Huge football fan and eighth grader Dillion White dislikes Taylor’s recent appearances in football, he said “Taylor Swift, in my opinion, isn’t a great artist and shouldn’t get the screen time.” Expressing dissatisfaction with the NFL for continuing to show Swift for extended amounts of time for no explicit reason.
Some may argue that celebrities are usually at the Super Bowl and that they get screen time. But most of the celebrities at the Superbowl only get around 3-4 seconds of screen time. Swift got almost 20 times more screen time than most of the other celebrities. She was shown a lot more than all the other celebrities combined.
Overall Swift seems to be ruining the game experience for the young fans of football. Many people have expressed concern/hate with the amount of times you see Swift during a Chiefs game. She overshadows the game and makes the experience worse for many people.With this season concluded let’s hope she doesn’t make many appearances next year either. The NFL has the wealth and resources to promote the game in many different ways. Football should be about the talented individuals, athleticism, teamwork and excitement that it brings.