It’s like the battle cry of the defense.
Whether to concentrate or relax, most people like to listen to music while working, and football players are no exception. If you don’t believe it, ask Travis Kelce after the furor that the song “Swag Surfin'” has caused among Kansas City Chiefs fans.
The song by the hip-hop group Fast Life Yungstaz was heard again a couple of weeks ago at Arrowhead Stadium at the request of linebacker Willie Gay Jr. In a video circulating on social media, you can see the player asking the stadium sound guys to play the song.
The catchy melody was heard again this Saturday in the Wild Card Super Round game against the Miami Dolphins. On this occasion, Kelce’s girlfriend, singer Taylor Swift, joined the uproar caused by the song, dancing and singing along with the crowd gathered in the stadium.
The song went viral, and that led Travis and his brother Jason to clarify its meaning on the “New Height” podcast, which they co-host on YouTube.
The meaning for the Chiefs
“There was also a great clip going around from the Chief’s social accounts, of Willie Gay, requesting the song Swag Surfin’ on the sideline cameras,”Jason comments to open the conversation.
After watching the video where Gay Jr. asks for the tune, the Philadelphia Eagles lineman takes the mic again to comment: “It was played in the stadium the next defensive drive. The offense was loving it. What is? Is there a significance to this song? Like, for the Chiefs? Or is this just a banger that you guys like?”
To respond, Travis comments that he had not heard the song for a long time, but he recalled that he started listening to it shortly after his arrival to the team in 2008. “Since I’ve been here, it’s been a huge fourth quarter big time.”
He explained that the screen crew plays a video of the song in the last quarter “and gets everybody hyped. I think we’ve been known to go crazy on the sideline when the defense is out there.”
It is a morale boost for the team
The Chiefs tight end explained that the song is usually played during or upon returning from the two-minute warning. “I think I remember it being like a two-minute deal, two-minute timeout. In the middle of that timeout play this.”
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He explained that the song “get everybody fired up when their (the other team’s) offense has to go back out on the field with the two-minute drive or after the two-minute warning.”
In the case of the game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, December 31, the song achieved its goal. “So yeah, shout out to Willie. I think the Swag Surfin’ did exactly what he wanted it to do. And that was to make that stadium feel like chaos and get the energy on the sideline going.”
