If you’ve been paying any attention to football talk the past week or so, you’ve been unable to avoid this one. The tide has been rising against the Kansas City Chiefs as their dominance has cemented them as the villains of the NFL. Makes sense. However, the hate has also led to what it always does on the internet these days — conspiracy theories.
The big one? The refs are helping the Chiefs win!
Yeah, it’s a classic sports refrain. If the calls don’t go your way, the refs are blind, paid off, or just plain like the other team better. Usually reasonable folks will tell you it’s just confirmation bias, that you only take note of all the close calls or “wrong” calls where the error isn’t what you want. We say usually. Turns out this time the grousing isn’t going away — it’s become a roar! Even big-time sports commentators are joining in, on TV no less, with ESPN analyst Adam Schefter leading the charge! That’s how big this has gotten. But it’s not done mutating…
Related: Travis Kelce Has Already Made His Retirement Decision! Win Or Lose, Insider Says He’ll…
See, what starts with the belief the refs are helping out the Chiefs can only grow. Because if you believe the refs are putting their thumbs on the scale for one team, you must believe the NFL is — at least a bit — rigged. And if you think the NFL is rigged, you naturally have to figure out why? Cui bono, as the old-timey detectives say, right? Who benefits? Who wins?
Well, the NFL as a whole. Because when the Chiefs go to the Super Bowl, the ratings are so much better. That’s the idea, anyway. Why? The Taylor Swift bump! Yes, ever since she started dating Travis Kelce and going to games, the viewership has seen a huge increase. A whole new demo got interested in the NFL all of a sudden, and not just to see their girl cheering in the suite — turns out a lot of Swifties discovered a love of the game! In all, Taylor’s presence is estimated (based on numbers from the Apex Marketing Group), to have generated over $300 MILLION for the NFL and the Chiefs. Conspiracies have been formed for far less money.
OK, so all that makes sense. Not that we believe it! We’re not saying we’re sold on the idea the refs are cheating or that any of it is rigged, mind you. We just mean we’re following the logic… so far.
But the thing about conspiracy theorists is, they’re never satisfied. They always believe there’s more to everything, so they chase the dragon and keep inventing more and more elaborate (and ridiculous) stories.
In this case, the theory that’s growing the fastest? The endpoint of the NFL rigging is… The Chiefs will beat the Philadelphia Eagles at the Super Bowl, and right there on the field after their threepeat Travis will get down on one knee and propose to Taylor. Maybe the most viewed live TV moment in history? Since we’ve had more than three channels anyway? Certainly in the streaming era.
Here’s a small sampling of the many tweets from the past couple days saying just that — the whole thing is rigged and ends with Trav proposing to Tay:
“Travis Kelce will propose to Taylor swift to complete the 2025 NFL script after the chiefs (refs) win the Super Bowl”
“Travis Kelce is gonna win superbowl MVP and propose to Taylor Swift.”
“Of course KC won. This is all part of the NFL’s dream scenario where KC wins 3 in a row, Travis Kelce unsurprisingly is named the SB MVP and then on national TV kneels down next to 2-time SB winner Taylor Swift and proposes to her. This league has become a joke. @NFL #rigged”
“Y’all really thought the NFL wasn’t gonna rig this so Travis Kelce can propose to Taylor Swift with superbowl confetti raining down?”
“Who wants to bet on this: During half time at superbowl 59. Travis asks Taylor to marry him on the 50 yard line for everyone to see!”
“I’m calling it now. If the Chiefs pull off the 3-peat, Travis will propose to Taylor on the 50 yard line.”
“Taylor makes it to the super bowl. Travis makes the winning touchdown, and proposes to Taylor on the 50 yard line. Taylor goes on the 50 yard line tour. It has been preordained.”
“It’s totally rigged. The NFL wants Taylor Swift to be proposed to at the 50 yard line in two weeks. Book it.”
“I predict that the NFL will rig the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl so that Travis Kelce can propose to Taylor Swift on the field at the end of the game.”
“We already know that @NFL rigged it for the Chiefs to make it to the Superbowl so Kelce can propose to Taylor. Literally everyone knows this, it’s boring as hell. This message brought to you by @DraftKings and the NFL Refs Union.”
Usually it’s tough to instantly refute a conspiracy theory about what will happen in the future. This time? Not so much. Why?
BECAUSE THEY ALREADY SPREAD THIS SAME DUMBASS THEORY LAST YEAR!
That’s right, it’s easy to memory hole this stuff, especially when it’s nonsense. But we remember clearly writing about all this! Tons of annoyed fans were convinced the whole thing was rigged and immediately proved they weren’t basing their conclusions on anything substantial by saying it was because Travis was going to propose after the game!
Seriously, here are a ton of tweets from A WHOLE YEAR AGO, and they could be from today!
“Now Travis Kelce will propose to Taylor Swift on the field while Colin Kaepernick sings Prince’s The Most Beautiful Girl on the World on top of a Prius. #SuperBowl”
“Can’t wait for Travis Kelce to propose to Taylor Swift at the 50 yard line as confetti rains down after the chiefs beat the 9ers in the Super Bowl! #NFLSCRIPT”
“called it nfls rigged watch cheifs win and travis gon propose to taylor calling it early watch”
“Superbowl 59, Half Time. Travis asks Taylor to marry him on the 50 yard line. I can already see it happening.”
“Taylor Swift wins a Grammy today then announces an album. Chiefs win the superbowl next week and Travis Kelce proposes to her on the field. This is all rigged they can’t fool me”
“MY PREDICTION: The Super Bowl will be rigged [just like our elections]… it will be Kansas City and the 49ers. Kansas City will [illegally] win. When the game is over… Travis Kelce will propose to Taylor Swift [the Left’s PSYOP] on the field for the entire nation to witness YOU WATCH “
This got so loud last year that by the time the players were doing interviews the week leading up to the big game, a reporter actually asked Travis about it! Though at the time, half the conspiracy theorists were convinced Taylor was going to endorse Joe Biden on the 50-yard line instead (something which never happened at all, btw, not even months later).
The point here? None of it happened! There was no proposal! It was all people going full looney tunes because they didn’t like the calls by the referees! And they just all want to believe there’s some big conspiracy to expose — and that by figuring it out they’ll magically fix everything wrong with their lives, from the price of eggs to their team winning the football game.
But at this point, making the exact same prediction as last year, you know what they remind us of? Doomsday soothsayers. Those guys who convince a handful of people with their fire and brimstone rhetoric that they know the exact date the world is ending. There are records of religious leaders making these predictions hundreds of years ago. Pope Sylvester II predicted it would end on January 1, 1000. In the 19th century a Baptist preacher said October 22, 1844. Jim Jones said 1967. Don’t google what happened to that guy’s followers on a full stomach. And they’re still going! A guy named Harold Camping got a lot of print for saying the world would end on September 6, 1994… Then he moved the goalpost to September 29, then October 2. Every time it didn’t happen, well, it was still going to and he was sure this time. Then he got wise and picked a date further out, swearing the apocalypse would be on October 21, 2011. Spoiler alert… Didn’t happen.
Look, if you want to side-eye the refs when they make a call you’re SURE was wrong, we’re not going to stop you. It’s a time-honored tradition in sports. But y’all… keep track of your footing when you’re jumping to these conclusions. Because you go from sounding cynical to sounding silly REAL fast. Or as Trav put it when he as asked about the conspiracy theories about his relationship being for NFL publicity and a Super Bowl engagement back in February of LAST YEAR…
“You’re all crazy. Every last one of you, you’re crazy.”
Sometimes he really is the smartest guy in the room.
[Image via NFL on CBS/New Heights/NFL/YouTube.]
The post Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce NFL Conspiracy Theory Heating Up — But Look At THIS! appeared first on Perez Hilton.
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