Taylor Swift tends to make an impact whenever she shows up at an NFL game, and her presence was noted quickly by the CBS broadcast as the Kansas City Chiefs took on the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
CBS color announcer Tony Romo, however, missed the mark on Swift’s relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in a funny on-air moment that startled Swift’s fans on social media.
Facing a third-and-long, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes found Kelce for a 23-yard completion that improbably moved the chains and sparked praise from Romo and play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz.
“That’s amazing,” Romo exclaimed, as the CBS cameras panned to Swift. “This is intercepted by most people, as you see Kelce’s wife Taylor Swift in the audience – er, I’m sorry.”
Taylor Swift looks on during the game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on December 10, 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri. CBS announcer Tony Romo accidentally called Swift Travis Kelce’s wife in a funny on-air gaffe Sunday.PHOTO BY JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES
“Not yet,” Nantz quipped.
Romo continued, noting that Kelce and Mahomes are among the best in the NFL at finding a defense’s “soft spot.”
“You don’t know something we don’t know, do you?” Nantz asked Romo, and the duo chuckled.
Swift’s fans immediately took to X, formerly Twitter to comment on Romo’s gaffe.
“Romo just called Taylor Swift ‘Kelce’s wife’ on accident and I just know all swifties had an actual heart attack,” user lynziekate posted.
“Tony Romo calling Taylor Travis’ wife I screameeeeddddd,” user stewartsjimmys wrote in all caps.
“Tony Romo accidentally calling Taylor swift Travis Kelce’s wife by accident is going to send swiftness into pure CHAOS,” user LCuratolo14 noted.
Near the end of the second quarter, after the Chiefs scored their first touchdown of the game and narrowed their deficit to 14-7, CBS’s cameras panned back to Swift’s booth as she high-fived and hugged people in her box above the field.
“Taylor liked it there,” Romo said, sticking with a much safer sentiment.
Swift arrived at Arrowhead Stadium shortly before the Bills ran out onto the field, and Bills players took note of the pop star, who walked by them wearing a black outfit with “Chiefs” emblazoned in large red letters on the front of her shirt.
Sunday’s contest was Swift’s sixth Chiefs game of the year and her fourth at Arrowhead Stadium. She recently told Time magazine that she doesn’t worry about angering “dads, Brads, and Chads” who are upset by the coverage of her at games. NBC’s Mike Tirico also embraced the practice of showing Swift at games.
“Hundreds of friends of my daughter who were watching the game were like, ‘That was really cool that you guys did that,'” Tirico said last month. “This is broadcasting, you’re trying to reach a broad audience. Right? And little bits that don’t take away from anything that happens on the football field, that’s going to welcome your audience. Don’t you want to grow the audience overall?”