Now that we’ve established that the Beckhams are the predecessors to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, it’s time for our daily update. Because, yes, there are daily updates.

 

Travis is currently making headlines for what he said about the NFL and their broadcasters’ celebrity coverage during games. As we have seen, when Taylor shows up to watch him play, they’re cutting away as much as they can to check in on what she’s doing. Travis’s brother, Jason, asked him about this on their New Heights podcast. Here’s a snippet of the conversation – and f-ck I wish I could have challenged them both during the conversation. 

So basically Travis is saying that the NFL is doing too much with his “situation”. Which is rich because… I mean…who’s the one doing too much? I’ll come back to this in a minute. 

 

Travis doesn’t really get a chance to expand on his thoughts though because Jason’s the one who takes over and points out that the NFL isn’t used to seeing so many celebrities at their games, unlike the NBA, which is an unintentional acknowledgement that even though the NFL is the biggest sports league in North America, culturally it’s not really perceived to be as cool as other sports, like basketball.

Where I disagree with him is how the NFL is handling the celebrity presence. Jason is speaking from the perspective of a player – which is his full-time job, I get it, but on his podcast, he’s acting as a media personality, and he’s kinda missing the mark here on the media analysis. 

Yes, the NFL is jizzing itself quite obviously over Taylor Swift. And yes, we’ve just established that they need to because their product is not as glamorous or as culturally relevant (apart from the big game once a year) during the regular season as other leagues. But the whole setup, visually, of the NFL’s sport is completely different from professional basketball. So the league and their broadcasters don’t really have a choice but to do it the way they’ve been doing it. 

 

The reason the NBA is so special with their natural flow is because it’s one of the most intimate sports to watch. There is seating right on the court. The audience members lucky enough to sit courtside – in other words the celebrities – are literally a foot sometimes away from the players. And it’s not unusual to see a player diving for a ball and end up in Jay-Z’s lap. 

That’s the advantage the NBA has over so many if not most other sports. They’re putting the audience right into the game. Which means, when we’re talking about cameras and cutaways, the broadcasters don’t have to necessarily make a point of singling in on a celebrity away from the action because the celebrities will just be in the shot during regular game play. On the basketball court, the most simple shot is to move the camera back and forth, left to right, from one side to the other as the teams move the ball up and down the court. Which means the people who are seated courtside are almost always on camera, just sitting there, moving their own heads from left to right. Think of Drake. When Drake is at a Raptors game, he’s on camera ALL THE TIME. Because he’s sitting on the court. 

When Jason says that the NBA has it figured out, then, well, there’s nothing to figure out! The celebrities are literally on the same level as the action. 

 

The NFL doesn’t have this option. The stadiums are so big, the fans are so far removed from the field, they have to specifically cut away from the field in order to show us what Taylor is doing. Not that I ever want to be defending the NFL and the broadcasters here but it’s a totally a different comparison – you cannot compare how both sports are covered in terms of how they’re broadcast. 

Sorry Jason Kelce, but your point doesn’t really hold up in the context of television production. The NFL is a business. It’s in the television business. It’s trying to gain traction in the culture business. Taylor Swift has been good for business. What they’ve done with television and the coverage – the “too muchness” of it – is exactly the right technical call and the right business call. Both for the league and for the people who are playing in the league. 

If we’re talking about “too much” though, how about Travis? Because by his own assessment of the NFL’s “too much”, it’s not like he’s been keeping it low key. 

Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson posted this yesterday – from an episode of their podcast over two months ago.

 

And look who shows up in the comments!

Travis Kelce shows up in the comments

Who’s doing too much now?! You know people can’t stop talking about you. And you’re revealing to us you have “Taylor and Travis” on your google alerts and dropping crumbs everywhere!

So while Travis is telling on himself about how much he cares about what people are saying about him and Taylor, Taylor is saying nothing. Here she is leaving Electric Lady Studios yesterday with Keleigh Sperry who is married to Miles Teller. Miles is a big Eagles fan. So this is another theory – that it was Miles who someone connected with the Kelces to connect to Taylor.