Taylor Swift Watches Chiefs Win Tremendous Bowl

The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs received their third Tremendous Bowl title within the final 5 seasons by beating the San Francisco 49ers in additional time, 25-22, on Sunday. Whereas some N.F.L. gamers go their total profession with out successful a championship, one among Kansas Metropolis’s newcomers got here away a winner of their thirteenth recreation.

Taylor Swift, who has been relationship Travis Kelce, Kansas Metropolis’s star tight finish, modified the N.F.L. dialog all season, attracting a brand new viewers for the league and provoking robust feelings (each optimistic and adverse) amongst followers. And, as anticipated, she was at the stadium and cheering on Mr. Kelce and the Chiefs of their come-from-behind win.

After the sport, Ms. Swift went down to the field to have fun with Donna Kelce and the remainder of Kansas Metropolis’s family and friends as Mr. Kelce sang a truly memorable rendition of “Viva Las Vegas.”

So she made it to Vegas?

Ms. Swift, as you could have heard, is good at keeping secrets. Her plans, past live performance dates, are hardly ever introduced prematurely. That has led some to plot their very own strategies for determining what she’s as much as. Forward of a Kansas Metropolis recreation in October, for instance, an NBC producer mentioned he had a spotter plane searching the area around MetLife Stadium for police escorts in hopes of alerting the tv crew if she confirmed up (she did).

Mr. Kelce was inundated with questions on Ms. Swift final week, and whereas he mentioned he had heard a few of her upcoming album — spoiler: he likes it — he didn’t provide any particulars about whether or not she could be on the recreation.

However she arrived at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday afternoon in time for the sport. She walked the tunnels of the stadium carrying a black top and pants whereas carrying a crimson jacket over her shoulder — and carrying a customized diamond and gold necklace by Stephanie Gottlieb with Mr. Kelce’s No. 87 on it — after which headed as much as the posh suites.

The CBS broadcast didn’t present her a lot in a quiet first half for Mr. Kelce and Kansas Metropolis, however she was proven routinely because the group got here again to win the sport, with Mr. Kelce offering a number of key performs within the fourth quarter and additional time.

She certain was. Her Eras Tour resumed lately, and on Saturday evening in Tokyo she carried out one more marathon set of her intensive catalog of songs. With flights from Tokyo to Las Vegas usually taking 13 hours or extra, and human beings requiring sleep, some anxious she won’t make the sport.

The Japanese Embassy in Washington pointed out that timing was not an actual hurdle for Ms. Swift. Initially, a personal jet shortens the journey (and supplies a spot to sleep peacefully if wanted). Second of all, the worldwide date line was her pal.

In 1873, earlier than the worldwide date line formally existed, the creator Jules Verne mapped out Ms. Swift’s time benefit in “Around the World in 80 Days.” Within the ebook, the protagonist Phileas Fogg believes he has misplaced his guess solely to appreciate the gap and path of his travels had saved him:

In journeying eastward he had gone in direction of the solar, and the times subsequently diminished for him as many instances 4 minutes as he crossed levels on this path. There are 300 and sixty levels on the circumference of the earth; and these 300 and sixty levels, multiplied by 4 minutes, offers exactly twenty-four hours — that’s, the day unconsciously gained. In different phrases, whereas Phileas Fogg, going eastward, noticed the solar go the meridian eighty instances, his associates in London solely noticed it go the meridian seventy-nine instances. For this reason they awaited him on the Reform Membership on Saturday, and never Sunday, as Mr. Fogg thought.

Or, as “The West Wing” summarized extra succinctly in a scene that mentioned President Bartlett’s journey from Tokyo to Washington, D.C. (and that recently went viral on-line):

Josh: He’s gonna land in Washington an hour earlier than he took off?
Sam: Yeah.

For older generations, these scenes helped clarify the logistics of the worldwide date line. For Gen Z and youthful, their body of reference will doubtless be … when Taylor Swift flew to Las Vegas for the Tremendous Bowl.

Throughout the common season, Ms. Swift attended quite a few video games in Kansas Metropolis whereas seated in a luxurious suite managed by Mr. Kelce’s shut pal and longtime teammate, Patrick Mahomes. She appeared to turn into quick associates with Mr. Mahomes’s spouse, Brittany, and was commonly seen with different members of the Mahomes household.

She has additionally frolicked at video games with Mr. Kelce’s dad and mom, Donna and Ed, and her personal father, mom and brother got here along with her to a recreation on Christmas. Throughout Ms. Swift’s journey to New Jersey for a Chiefs-Jets recreation she was seated with associates just like the actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Energetic.

At a playoff recreation in Buffalo final month, she and Kylie Kelce had been amongst these proven reacting to Jason Kelce’s shirtless bellowing and fraternizing with the group.

And on the A.F.C. championship recreation in Baltimore, she was surrounded by Mr. Kelce’s household and associates, together with Donna and Ed Kelce, Jason and Kylie Kelce and Mr. Kelce’s managers, Aaron and André Eanes. There have been additionally a number of of Ms. Swift’s associates, just like the actress Keleigh Teller and the mannequin Cara Delevingne.

For the Tremendous Bowl, it was an analogous crowd, with the Kelces, the Eanes brothers and Ms. Energetic there with Ms. Swift and her household. Additions to the everyday crew, by way of who she was proven with through the recreation, included the rapper Ice Spice — who entered the stadium with Ms. Swift — and the singer Lana Del Rey.

Nobody ever appeared to thoughts Jack Nicholson being a fixture at Los Angeles Lakers video games, or Spike Lee being more associated with the New York Knicks than a lot of the group’s gamers. Drake acquired solely a slap on the wrist when he started strolling onto the court docket throughout timeouts at Toronto Raptors playoff video games. However although Ms. Swift receives relatively little airtime through the broadcasts of Kansas Metropolis’s video games, she has turn into a goal for many who nonetheless assume she’s getting outsize consideration.

“The attention is there because the audience wants to see it,” Jason Kelce, brother of Travis, mentioned in an interview throughout final week’s Professional Bowl festivities. “If people didn’t want to see it they wouldn’t be showing it.”

As Ms. Swift put it, “a few dads, Brads, and Chads” could also be offended, however the TV networks are thrilled. A ratings analysis by The Upshot indicated that she very properly could also be a driving issue for the league’s elevated viewers. Coach Andy Reid of the Chiefs has repeatedly mentioned that he’s comfortable to have her round, and the N.F.L., which is having fun with an sudden growth of its built-in viewers, has totally embraced her affiliation with the league.

“N.F.L. fans come in all types — even global sensations,” mentioned Alex Riethmiller, an N.F.L. spokesman. “We’re glad to have Taylor on board.”

That is Taylor, absolutely there was some numerology concerned?

Ms. Swift has mentioned she loves the quantity 13, and her followers can seemingly discover it in all places. Within the case of this yr’s Tremendous Bowl, the examples are plentiful:

• Tremendous Bowl 58 (5+8=13)

• Feb. 11, 2/11 (2+11=13)

• Kansas Metropolis is enjoying the 49ers (4+9=13)

• The 49ers had been the No. 1 seed within the N.F.C., whereas the Chiefs had been the No. 3 seed within the A.F.C. (1 and three — 13)

• That is the thirteenth N.F.L. recreation Ms. Swift has attended this season

It was unclear going into the day if it was a great or dangerous signal that San Francisco’s beginning quarterback, Brock Purdy, wears No. 13. However in the long run that didn’t matter, as Ms. Swift’s thirteenth N.F.L. recreation ended with a Chiefs win.