Taylor Swift will probably skip Travis Kelce’s season finale Chiefs game. Here’s why
Taylor Swift has attended nine Kansas City Chiefs games this season to watch her new beau, tight end Travis Kelce, earn his paycheck.
But it doesn’t seem likely she will be in SoFi Stadium on Sunday to watch the team’s last regular season game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
For one thing, it’s not known at this point whether Kelce will even play.
But also, the pop star has business of her own to take care of on Sunday, coincidentally just down the road from SoFi, where in August she became the first artist to perform five consecutive shows there.
According to multiple reports, Swift will attend the Golden Globes ceremony at The Beverly Hilton hotel Sunday. Her concert movie, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” is nominated for an award in a new category, Cinematic and Box Office Achievement.
In another coincidence, the concert movie was filmed at SoFi Stadium.
Fans who are waiting to see Swift and Kelce together for the first time on a red carpet have twisted themselves into knots trying to figure out, logistically, if it could happen this weekend.
The game begins at 3:25 p.m. CT on CBS; the Golden Globes start at 7 p.m. CT, also on CBS. The hotel is about a 30-minute drive from the stadium. But red carpet coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. CT, during the game. (It’s available to watch online only on the websites run by Variety, ET and the Golden Globes.)
Here’s another reason Swift’s attendance seems unlikely: Win or lose, the Chiefs have locked up the AFC’s No. 3 seed, so this isn’t a high-stakes game, giving the Chiefs the chance to rest their best players, including Kelce.
On Wednesday, Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid said barring multiple injuries, quarterback Patrick Mahomes won’t play, but he was circumspect about Kelce, who is just 16 receiving yards away from 1,000 for the season. He holds the record for an NFL tight end, hitting that mark seven consecutive seasons.
Reporters asked Reid if he would consider playing someone on the verge of a statistical milestone. The coach, not sharing much publicly, said, “it depends” on the milestone.
So it’s possible Kelce could hit his record then sit out the rest of the game.
Taylor Swift at the Golden Globes
Swift’s concert film will square off against two of last year’s juggernauts — “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” nominated for the most film awards, nine and eight respectively.
The other nominees in the category are: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3,” “John Wick: Chapter 4,” “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
The three-hour concert film, which debuted in October, broke records for first-day ticket sales, making it the biggest concert film debut of all time.
Swift has never won a Golden Globe, though she has been nominated four times before this year for best original song in a movie in 2013, 2014, 2020 and most recently last year for “Carolina” from the movie “Where the Crawdads Sing.”
While it seems unlikely that Swift and Kelce would attend together, Swift could possibly meet up again Sunday with another well-known Chiefs fan — Jason Sudeikis, creator of the hit series “Ted Lasso.”
The show’s third and final season earned three Golden Globe nominations: best TV comedy, actor (Sudeikis) and supporting actress (Hannah Waddingham, who joined Sudeikis in Kansas City at his Thundergong fundraiser last fall).
Swift has already “won” more than awards hardware in Sudeikis’ estimation.
Sudeikis told THR (The Hollywood Reporter) that he personally thanked Swift over the summer for bringing her tour to Kansas City. She gave back-to-back concerts at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in early July.
“I was thankful to Taylor, just hanging out, coming to do two nights of shows here,” Sudeikis said. “All my friends, people with kids, people without kids, just had a blast.
“And she was like, ‘Oh, it was an amazing run.’ Little did I know, just a few months later, she’d be our adopted daughter.”
Sudeikis said he didn’t blame Swift “for wanting to hang out with Travis. He’s a good egg.”
The 81st annual Golden Globes air at 7 p.m. on CBS and also stream on Paramount Plus. The host will be superstar comedian Jo Koy (who is coming to The Midland in Kansas City on March 14).
Includes reporting from The Star’s Jesse Newell.
