Taylor Swift Gets Booed By NFL Fans (& This Is What She Said)

Taylor Swift is taking time off from the international dates of The Eras Tour, and during her off-time, she's been attending Kansas City Chiefs games — her boyfriend is NFL tight end Travis Kelce. When she went to Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play the New England Patriots, the camera focused on Swift sitting next to Brittany Mahomes and her dad in a private box, and along with being broadcast at home, it was displayed on the massive screen at the stadium. The crowd at the New England Patriots home stadium definitely responded to seeing the close-up of Swift, but not with the cheers and applause that Swift gets at her concerts. Nope, instead the NFL fans booed.

One fan — of the New England Patriots presumably and not of Swift — posted footage of the incident on X, formerly known as Twitter. At first, Swift smiled and flashed a peace sign when she saw she was on the big screen. She made a "mwah" kiss face after she seemed to notice the booing from the crowd, but she took the reaction in stride. She turned to Mahomes and gave a shrug, like she expected the reaction, and then seemed to say to Mahomes, "I knew this was coming," via X.

It may not have been that those booing Taylor Swift held any animosity against her specifically, but rather that she was there at the home stadium of the New England Patriots to cheer on the Kansas City Chiefs. One person posted on X, about how it could be an attempt to get in the head of Travis Kelce: "It's not personal...it's football. She's part of the 'enemy' team right now. Plus they want to try to rattle TK." Others didn't see the point of sending so much negativity towards Swift, "I mean I get that they r booing chiefs not her hopefully she sees it that way too. But like she's not on the team so it seems cruel," wrote one fan.

Swift talked to Time magazine, in her Person of the Year article, about what it was like to have the camera on her during Chiefs games and some people's negative reactions to her being there, and it seems like she's able to, well, shake it off. "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," Swift said. "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."

Taylor Swift's reference to "dads, Brads, and Chads" in her Time magazine article was used as inspiration by Debbie Butters, the local Massachusetts baker, who was asked to make custom cookies for Swift's suite for the Chiefs vs. Patriots game. Brittany Mahomes posted a picture of one of the cookies on her Instagram stories, which had the phrase, "dads, Brads, and Chads," in icing above hands making a "whatever" sign. Butters also posted all the designs to her Instagram including jerseys, all with Swift's self-proclaimed lucky number 13 and the names of Swift's cats on them.

Swift was able to take getting booed without too much distress, but she was seen getting upset over her boyfriend Travis Kelce getting knocked down in the end zone. The camera cut to Swift's reaction right at the moment that she was getting to her feet, seemingly in annoyance. While it's not clear for sure exactly what she said, from the footage on X, she seems to be yelling something that starts with f — could be the f-word or could be calling for a flag on the play for pass interference.

Along with showing Taylor Swift live in the private box at the Chiefs and Patriots game — which cued the boos from the crowd — they included a quote from Swift, "Gillette Stadium is the most joyful place on earth." And for her fans, they know why she'd say that. Gillette Stadium was the first NFL stadium that Swift ever played, back in 2010 as a part of her Fearless tour. The next year during the Speak Now tour, the stadium became the setting for what would become known as her legendary "rain show," where Swift and her fans danced and sang for three hours in pouring rain. Swift later told Rolling Stone was one of her favorite memories from the tour. Her most recent return to Gillette Stadium was in May 2023 for The Eras Tour.

While we didn't see Travis Kelce and Swift together in person at the Chiefs vs. Patriots game, there was a sweet moment before the game when Kelce and Swift were together, in a way. Kelce is seen walking past a row of posters at the stadium, and the only poster he looks up at is the one of Swift performing at the stadium for her Speak Now tour, via X. It's fun to see their careers overlap in a roundabout way via a shared space, and we hope that the boos Swift got at the game don't put her off Gillette Stadium all together.