Taylor Swift’s guest appearance on New Heights was a moment, like it or not. Over 1.2M people tuned in live to watch a football podcast because of her appearance on the Kelce brothers’ show, and honestly, if you left watching that disliking her then you’re a just a hater — because she was effortlessly charming, funny, and genuinely likable.
Taylor Swift knows more about football than the people who want her off their NFL screens
Tay Tay knows ball.
Normally the announcement of a Taylor Swift album happens at an awards show or a national morning broadcast, or it’s designed to garner tens-of-millions of impressions on social media. It doesn’t happen on a podcast where two brothers talk about football and shoot the shit — which is just the tip of the iceberg on why the appearance was so great. Aside from learning about The Life of a Showgirl, her upcoming album, and getting to see Taylor and Travis interact as a couple (which was genuinely sweet), we also got to learn about how Taylor has been learning football.
“I became a person who was running through the halls of my house screaming ‘We drafted Xavier Worthy!’ and my friends are like ‘who body snatched you? This is, what is, what do you mean we drafted Xavier Worthy?’ I was screeching. I was screeching. I couldn’t believe it. […] We’re talking about a Cover-2, Cover-4, Cover-0, Man Coverage — we’re learning. I’m not ready to be an analyst right now, but give me 16 months.”
Everyone out here acting like Taylor Swift is an affront to their TV screens obviously doesn’t remember that this exact thing happened 20 years ago when Carrie Underwood was dating Tony Romo. When a music star dates a football player there’s attention, it happens. At least Taylor is showing she understands football, because inside of that rather innocuous comment, Swift showed that she really gets football, because Worthy in particular is a brilliant player at attacking the three zone coverages she mentioned.
- Against Cover-2 he stretches the safeties vertically who have to respect his deep threat potential, which opens up the middle for guys like Travis Kelce to get favorable matchups on linebackers
- Against Cover-4 he has the speed to exploit underneath routes, especially in mesh and drag concepts
- Against Cover-0 he wins by getting a quick release to punish the all-out blitz pressure on slants
Against man, it’s pretty simple: Worthy out-runs the defender. Notice that Swift didn’t mention Cover-3, well, you might think it’s because she was riffing, but notably Cover-3 isn’t a great defense for Worthy to attack. The best way to attack Cover-3 is with perimeter throws, which normally dictate having big-bodied receivers to make contested catches, or highly precise route running to find soft spots in the zone. Neither of those elements are part of his core skillset, so it makes sense not to mention it.
For all the people who say Swift doesn’t belong on a football broadcast, I dare say she knows more about ball than the people so insulted that she’s featured.
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