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Taylor Swift was just named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, and there’s probably no bigger name in pop culture than Swift. Her Era Tour will gross over $2 billion, breaking all records, and Forbes says the impact on local economies will be $4.6 billion. Just when you think her media exposure is at an all-time high, Swift hooks up with Kansas City Chiefs star tight end and the media just loses their minds. During Chiefs games featuring Swift, the NFL kept switching to camera shots of Swift cheering on Kelce and the Chiefs. At the same time, social media is ablaze with speculation and talk about their relationship and whether it’s headed for a meltdown like all of Swift’s previous ones.
While all of this is happening, Kelce and the Chiefs have lost 4 of their last 6 games – and there’s no one to blame but Taylor Swift. Just kidding. But seriously, no celebrity/athlete relationship has been more publicized or attracted more media coverage than Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Is it just a coincidence, or could the Chiefs be sliding as a result of the Taylor Swift celebrity relationship curse?
This isn’t the first time the celebrity relationship curse has befallen a professional athlete. It may have started with David Beckham and Posh Spice turning Beckham’s career into a media circus full of distractions and public outrage against Beckham. Or maybe you remember Serena Williams’ struggles in tennis, which were allegedly related to her relationship with Drake. Then there’s Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson, where the fortunes of Romo and the Dallas Cowboys seemed to plummet after their relationship.
However, possibly the biggest athlete career destroyer is Kim Kardashian and her serial athlete relationship gone sour. Kim has become wildly successful as a fashion icon, business mogul, and undoubtedly kryptonite to athletic careers. Just ask Reggie Bush, after losing his Heisman trophy, his NFL stats magically plummeted after he started dating the reality star. Or Dallas Cowboys’ Miles Austin, whose hands suddenly turned into fat fingers after being cast in episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashian’s as Kim’s love interest. And who could forget Kris Humphries? The poor guy went from NBA journeyman to tabloid fodder after a tumultuous 72-day marriage to the reality TV queen.
Now for Travis Kelce and the Chiefs. From now until the end of the season, we’ll be peppered with images of Swift cheering on Kelce or consoling him after a loss. They are being chased by paparazzi. Is this the extra pressure Kelce or the Chiefs need? Just ask David Beckman about the series of career problems surrounding his relationship with Posh Spice, which have been laid bare in a recent documentary.
But it’s all the stuff that plays well in today’s world where live sports and reality shows reign supreme. We have both here, and the added interest in Chiefs games will push the ratings through the roof. The reason is that now we have even more reason to watch how Kelce and the Chiefs fare the rest of the way. Will they make it last year with the help of their most famous cheerleader or will they fall victim to the curse of the celebrity relationship? The big finale will be whether the relationship survives it all, because if not, Swift will soon be writing songs about Kelce and what went wrong.
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