Depending on your take on the Taylor Swift-centric broadcasts during Chiefs games, you either really loved or really hated Al Michael’s call Thursday night.
Many noticed how the veteran broadcaster barely focused on the 12-time Grammy winner and her relationship with Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce during the Chiefs’ 19-8 win over the Broncos on “Thursday Night Football.”
For the Swifties, MIchaels surely didn’t do enough.
For those who are over the whole Swift-Kelce romance, Michaels provided relief.
Michaels did, though, have one interesting line regarding the status of the pair that has not been officially confirmed.
“Well, and of course, looking on is, at the moment, his good buddy and girlfriend Taylor Swift,” Michaels said during the fourth quarter.
Chiefs games have become huge ratings draw for the NFL since Swift first came to one of Kelce’s games in Week 3, and Thursday marked her third Chiefs game.
She only missed Kansas City’s Week 5 road win against the Vikings in Minneapolis.
The NFL is leaning into the situation, even pushing its television partners to promote her movie for free, as first reported by The Post.
Michaels told Sports Illustrated that he would handle the Swift-Kelce situation “in moderation” and he held true to his word.
“What we’re gonna do (Thursday), everything in moderation,” Michaels told the outlet. “Our crew talked about it this morning. You can’t make a sideshow the show. The vast majority of the audience are tuning in to watch a football game. There are people, I don’t know how many, it could be a sizable number, but it’s certainly not a majority, that if you trained the camera on her all night long, they’d be satisfied with that. This is not what we’re doing to do.”
Michaels and the Amazon Prime broadcast, when compared to Fox’s Week 3 broadcast and NBC’s Week 4 broadcast, gave Swift the backseat for this Week 5 game.
That’s not to say that Swift didn’t find her ways onto screens, especially with Kelce tallying nine catches for 124 yards.
Michaels and co-host Kirk Herbstreit just didn’t discuss Swift as much as others.
The 78-year-old even referenced the plan during one shot of Kelce Swift talking with Kelce’s father, Ed.
“Well, everything in moderation but here’s another shot of Taylor Swift,” MIchaels said. “If you bet the under (on how many times Swift is shown), you’re doing OK.”
Michael’s approach was quite noticeable.
Follow along with Page Six for the latest in the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce courtship
“Al MIchaels not going to mention Taylor Swift got to respect it lol,” Robert Littal of BSO posted on X.
“Al Michaels treating Taylor Swift like a vegetable. Just refusing to acknowledge she exists,” posted Jake Trowbridge of Matthew Berry’s Fantasy Life.
“Al Michaels had to mention Taylor Swift on the broadcast and I can feel his mental exhaustion all the way from Kansas City,” posted the Daily Mail’s Conor Sheeran.
The Chiefs are back in action Oct. 22 when they host the Chargers on CBS, which will be the network’s first chance to lean into what Michaels deemed an official “relationship.”
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