This Taylor Swift Hit Perfectly Predicted Her Super Bowl Backlash

Taylor Swift has a legion of dedicated and passionate fans (hello Swifties!). But on the flip side, she seems to have some haters, particularly since she started dating Travis Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, and started going to his games. Some people don't seem to like the attention that Swift is getting for showing up to support her boyfriend, and they think the NFL is making too much of their relationship. Swift has even been booed by some NFL fans when she's shown on screen.

But Swift seems pretty unbothered by all of it, and dare we say she even predicted something like this — haters grumbling about her while they watch football? Take a look at the lyrics from "Mean," a song off of her album, "Speak Now." It was originally released in 2010, and then re-released with "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" in 2023.

In the chorus to the aptly-named song, Swift sings, "Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me / And all you're ever gonna be is mean," and then in the bridge, "And I can see you years from now in a bar / Talking over a football game / With that same big, loud opinion, but nobody's listening." Pair that with "Shake It Off" and, if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, "Look What You Made Me Do," and that's the start of a whole playlist dedicated to Swift's NFL haters.

Taylor Swift allegedly wrote the song "Mean" after Bob Lefsetz harshly reviewed her live performance at the 2010 Grammys. Swifties have a long memory, and they're bringing Lefsetz up again now that Swift is (maybe) going to be at the Super Bowl this year, because it means her lyrics in the song might literally come true. One person wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, "imagine being Bob Lefsetz in a bar trying to watch a football game 14 years after Taylor wrote Mean about you and now you don't just have to see her in the news or marketing but every time you're watching football too[.] TayKarma always wins!"

The lyrics now also sound like they're directed to the "dads, Brads, and Chads" who don't like seeing her during Chiefs games. In her Time "Person of the Year" article, Swift commented on the attention she's received while at Travis Kelce's games: "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."

If the Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl 58, we hope we get to see another cute moment from Swift and Kelce. After the AFC Championship win, the two shared hugs and kisses out on the field, clearly not caring what any detractors thought.