Stephen A. Smith is not here for the Taylor Swift slander.
“I have to take a moment to come to the defense of Taylor Swift,” Smith, 56, said during a Wednesday, January 10, Mad Dog’s A-List segment on ESPN. “Everybody’s sitting up there and acting like she’s some kind of impediment.”
Smith directly addressed the criticism about Swift, 34, attending Kansas City Chiefs games in support of her boyfriend, Travis Kelce.
“Excuse me, she did her job! That Eras Tour? Off the chain. Generated billions,” he added. “She’s going to support her dude. To show up at a football game and the cameras are on her — that ain’t her fault! And excuse me, by the way, she went to the games after the concerts. It’s not like she used the games to bump up the concerts.”
NFL fans haven’t been able to get Swift off their minds since she went public with Kelce, also 34, in September 2023. Her numerous appearances at his football games inspired the NFL to capitalize off the attention by using her music for promotional clips and pointing the camera at her during broadcasts.
According to Smith, critics are too focused on trying to find a reason to dislike Swift.
“Those kids were going to her concerts whether the NFL was promoting her or not! Taylor Swift is that girl. Let’s show some respect,” he concluded. “She probably is gonna have a positive on Travis Kelce’s performance, OK? I’m not trying to disrespect Taylor Swift.”
Swift has previously received support from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who leaned into the craze around Kelce’s personal life.
“They seem to be enjoying their relationship. That’s great in and of itself, but it has connected more fans of Taylor’s and more fans of the NFL in some ways,” he told CBS in November 2023. “[Swift is] an unbelievable artist, obviously, Travis is an unbelievable player and I think it’s great for the league to have that kind of attention — so we welcome it.”
As for Swift, she isn’t concerned about the negative reactions from some people.
“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,” she told TIME in December 2023 about the attention. “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.”
Swift went on to gush about her connection with Kelce, saying, “When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care. The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
