“I saw a lot of conspiracy theorists talking about Kansas City at Buffalo middle of the season when Taylor’s playing Toronto, that one definitely did not hit our radar screen.”
The 2023 NFL season generated a great deal of talk regarding pop sensation Taylor Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and her attendance at several of his games. As a result, Swift received some attention from broadcasters and was the subject of far more media coverage than she received for the comparatively short lengths of time that she was on screen.
Subsequently, during the debate around the NFL’s 2024 schedule unveiling this week, numerous inquiries centered on the extent to which the league took Swift’s scheduling methodology into account. This included an assertion made on The Dan Patrick Show that Swift’s visits to Toronto had an impact on a Buffalo Chiefs game:
“Hellooo! That’s not an accident!” – Dan Patrick on the NFL scheduling the Chiefs in Buffalo while Taylor Swift has a series of concerts in Toronto. pic.twitter.com/IoJbT2434o
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 16, 2024
And then, a discussion from NFL director of broadcasting Charlotte Caray on FanDuel TV’s Up and Adams was seen as reinforcing this by some. However, Caray’s comment was specifically about Swift’s tour dates in NFL stadiums. which does not apply to her show in Toronto.
“Taylor’s definitely a factor this year also.”@NFLÂ Director of Broadcasting Charlotte Carey on having to schedule around musical acts like Taylor Swift in certain NFL stadiumsÂ
@heykayadams pic.twitter.com/ed4Qypoqm6
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) May 16, 2024
The statement on Swift’s dates at NFL stadiums was explicitly about “Taylor’s definitely a factor this year also.” This is comparable to other bands performing in those locations. During a Thursday NFL conference call concerning the schedule release, Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of media distribution, and Michael North, the vice president of broadcast planning, ended up talking about it. North responded that Swift’s autumn schedule was taken into account when the NFL created its schedule in response to a question from Ben Volin of The Boston Globe. However, he clarified that was just in reference to her dates at league stadiums and dismissed any mention of Buffalo.
“We gave careful thought to the tour dates that visited NFL stadiums,” he stated. “I believe she’s in Miami, and we definitely considered New Orleans and Indianapolis.” However, there is one item we overlooked: Taylor’s game against Toronto in the middle of the season, Kansas City at Buffalo—a topic that many conspiracy theorists brought up—did not even cross our minds.
Although readers may disagree on the extent to which this is due to Swift’s influence and the Chiefs’ status as the defending Super Bowl champions, North did state that the Chiefs were given top priority in the league’s scheduling process and that some of their games were even left out of the automated calculations in favor of manual assignment.
He declared, “As far as allocating the Chiefs’ games go, they’re a Cowboys-level asset right now.” We wanted to make sure we could still supply high-quality Kansas City material, so we were able to pull two games out of the mix and put them in a TBD black box holding spot for the Saturday-Wednesday round robin at the finish. Three of them went to NBC, two to ESPN, a division winner was headed to Tampa Bay, and they made two trips to Arrowhead, which is, of course, an amazing place to play our games.
“Amazon is getting one, and as they work to build that out, they really were hoping to see that implemented on Black Friday. Hans brought up Fox acquiring Kansas City-San Francisco. Since Fox only acquired one Kansas City, obtaining possibly the greatest Kansas City undoubtedly kind of satisfies their itch. And eight Kansas City games are still left for CBS to air.
At this time, the Chiefs are undeniably appealing, in part because they won the Super Bowl and partly because of the Swift-Kelce narrative. Contrary to what Patrick and others have said, it’s intriguing to hear the league’s senior schedule maker state that they specifically did not take Swift’s Toronto dates around that Buffalo game into account. It’s also intriguing to hear him acknowledge that several Chiefs games were postponed for important responsibilities.
