No, it's not Taylor Swift's fault that the Chiefs keep losing

Taylor Swift cheers on the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Christmas Day 2023. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

• The Kansas City Chiefs have lost three of their last four games.
• Some NFL analysts blamed Taylor Swift, who is dating TE Travis Kelce, for creating a distraction.
• Glaring offensive issues, not a woman cheering on the sidelines, are to blame for the Chiefs’ woes.

The Kansas City Chiefs are struggling like they haven’t in years.

For the first time since future Hall of Fame quarterback Patrick Mahomes assumed the mantle under center for the team, Kansas City has lost six games in a single season. And with just two contests remaining before the playoffs begin, the Chiefs have lost three of their last four games and four of their last six.

Patrick Mahomes reacts after getting sacked by the Las Vegas Raiders defense. Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Now NFL analysts and former players are searching for whom to blame for the reigning Super Bowl champions’ stunning backslide. And some have pointed to Taylor Swift — yes, that one — as the source of the franchise’s recent woes.

The international singing-songwriting sensation is romantically involved with Travis Kelce, the eight-time Pro Bowl tight end who has helped Kansas City hoist two Super Bowl trophies over the last five years. Swift famously started showing up to Chiefs games — at Arrowhead Stadium and elsewhere across the country — this season to support her new beau.

She’s arrived just in time to watch the team falter, and everyone from right-wing personalities Charlie Kirk and Clay Travis to sports commentator Skip Bayless and his FS1 colleagues — former NFL stars Keyshawn Johnson and Michael Irvin — has decided to lay the team’s struggles at Swift’s feet.

Taylor Swift at Arrowhead Stadium for a Chiefs game on October 22. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Never mind that those feet have never even stepped on the field. Or that she has zero to do with the many problems that are clearly plaguing Kansas City’s offense.

The Chiefs’ offensive line has floundered, leaving Mahomes with no choice but to scramble away from rushers before scouting for options downfield. And those options downfield are considerably weaker than they have been in years past.

Kansas City has wanted for reliable receivers since trading away wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who has proven himself as one of the most lethal weapons in football since joining the Miami Dolphins last year. The Chiefs’ current cast of catchers can’t compete, and even Kelce — who is undoubtedly still a force at tight end — seems to finally be slowing down at 34 years old.

Travis Kelce. David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

It also doesn’t help that for the first time since Mahomes took over as the starting quarterback in Kansas City, his offensive coordinator is not named Eric Bieniemy.

So to pin the Chiefs’ troubles on the “distraction” that comes with Swift’s presence — as Bayless wrote on social media — is to blatantly disregard the evidence on the tape. To call the ruckus surrounding America’s new power couple “a bit much” for the team to handle — as he, Johnson, and Irvin implied on their talk show, “Undisputed” — is to completely disregard the ability of professional football players and coaches to navigate the added attention and pressure.

Kirk and Travis referring to Swift as the “Chief’s Yoko Ono” — a not-so-subtle accusation that she is responsible for breaking up the band — is simply sexist. And the premise that a woman cheering from the sidelines is somehow responsible for the failings of an entire professional enterprise is just asinine.