Taylor Swift Expected to Skip Kansas City Chiefs Matchup With Cleveland Browns

Cleveland might be known as the Rock and Roll Capital of the World, but the home of the genre’s Hall of Fame still wasn’t able to attract Taylor Swift to its biggest venue Sunday. Though her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, is hitting the turf at Huntington Bank Field as the Kansas City Chiefs square off against the Cleveland Browns, Swift won’t be there.

Word on Swift’s decision came from Associated Press sports writer Tom Withers, who tweeted that stadium security confirmed that the singer would not be at Sunday’s game. The decision came as a surprise to some, who noted that Swift’s Eras Tour has been over for a week. The assumption, perhaps, is that now that the singer has concluded the most successful concert series in history, she has nothing better to do than dive full force into WAG life.

Of course, there is probably more on Taylor Swift’s schedule than stops at various stadiums—though a well-earned break from public life following her December 13 birthday is also a reasonable possibility. Exactly how the star celebrated her 35th birthday hasn’t been reported, though Page Six cites an anonymous source as saying that Kelce gave her “a ton of gifts.” Perhaps the real celebration is happening now, with Swift in sweatpants and slippers.

And though she’s not at Huntington Bank Field, she might still be in Ohio. Kelce is a proud son of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, a close-to-Cleveland suburb, intel that’s spurred rumors that she’s in the area, just not at the game. Given that ongoing security concerns have impelled Swift to stick to Chiefs home games, that’s not the craziest rumor circulating online these days.

Despite Swift’s absence, today’s matchup still includes a link to the singer: Paul Sidoti, a native of nearby Strongsville, Ohio, who’s served as Swift’s lead guitarist since 2017, played a pre-game set as the players took the field. Via X (formerly Twitter), the Browns made light of the rumors Swift might be in attendance, tweeting a video of Sidoti’s performance with the caption, “The special guest everyone has been waiting for, Taylor Swift… ’s guitarist, Cleveland native Paul Sidoti!”