Days before Travis Kelce is set to play of one of the biggest games of his career, the NFL player was served a curveball during a press conference that’s causing inevitable discourse among football fans and, obviously, Taylor Swift fans.
According to a video shared by People, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end was asked how he felt about President Donald Trump’s plan to attend the Super Bowl on February 9 in New Orleans. “It’s awesome,” Kelce replied with a shrug. “It’s a great honor. No matter who the president is. I’m excited because it’s the biggest game of my life, you know. Having the president there…it’s the best country in the world. It’ll be pretty cool.”
People—particularly those who’ve elevated Kelce’s platform throughout his highly publicized romance with Taylor Swift—were disappointed by this answer. After all, Trump seems to be doing all he can to dismantle the government systems that define the country Kelce loves so much.
Just to name a few, Trump attempted to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, drafted plans to eliminate the Department of Education, and seemingly allowed an unelected billionaire to lay siege to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), costing American citizens thousands of jobs and raising alarm bells around the world.
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And if none of that’s of any concern to Travis Kelce, how about this: five short months ago, Trump posted “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” on his social media platform Truth Social after the pop star endorsed his opponent Kamala Harris for president. And just last week, the white house took direct aim at Swift’s close friend Selena Gomez for addressing the massive wave of ICE raids happening all over the country. (Reminder: Swift and Gomez might be absurdly rich celebrities, but they’re also United States citizens with freedom of speech.)
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For any number of those reasons, some Chiefs fans and Taylor Swift fans were looking for a different answer from Kelce. “If you’re on record of publicly saying that you hate someone close to me—more specifically someone I’ve chosen to share my life with—I’m never going to be honored to be in your presence,” TikTok user Kevin McGannon said in a video that’s received over 297,000 likes.
Of course, for every person expressing frustration with Kelce’s answer, there was a different person jumping to his defense. “What is he supposed to say,” Canadian-born former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe commented on the press conference video, echoing hundreds of similar sentiments. Another Instagram user wrote, “He answered professionally, as he should. His addition of…’no matter who it is,’ tells us all what we need to know.”
“He said it’s a great honor to have the President there no matter who it is,” a third commenter insisted. “He DID NOT say it was a great honor to have ‘Trump’ there.”
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While some have declared the tight end a Trump supporter based on his controversial response, it seems most of his detractors and defenders are operating under the assumption that the Kelce’s values are not aligned with the current administration, typically citing his COVID vaccine commercials and support for Black Lives Matter. But even if that’s true, fans are justified to call out a response that normalizes Trump’s current behavior as if this were any other president.
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Back in May, Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker faced zero professional repercussions for spouting off all sorts of hateful rhetoric about the LGBTQ+ community and working women during a commencement speech at Benedictine College. In fact Chiefs owner Clark Hunt reportedly said he had no problem with his players speaking out about politics, reportedly saying, “I’m not at all concerned when our players use their platform to try and make a difference for what they believe in.”
(If your wondering, Kelce called Butker a “great person and a great teammate,” though he said he doesn’t agree with “just about any” of the views expressed in the speech.)
Read moreChiefs Player Harrison Butker Wants Women to Stay in the Kitchen
And he even dragged Taylor Swift into it.
To those who suggest Kelce had no choice but to play proverbial ball with the president, tell me this: What would have happened if Travis Kelce didn’t declare it an “honor” to entertain Donald Trump this Sunday? He certainly wouldn’t have lost his job. Perhaps Donald Trump would have tweeted “I HATE TRAVIS KELCE” or he’d piss off some fans. I thought football players were supposed to be tough.
While answering the same question during his own press conference, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts said Trump is “welcome to do whatever he wants” and kept it pushing. When asked if Trump’s presence created any added pressure, he simply replied, “no ma’am.”
Travis Kelce is under no obligation to share his political views, speak out against the Trump administration, or publicly chastise the President of the United States for taunting his girlfriend. But if you’re asking what a highly respected white man with three Super Bowl rings should have said about about a bully he supposedly doesn’t support? The answer is literally anything else.
The post What Was Travis Kelce Supposed to Say About Donald Trump? Literally Anything Else. appeared first on Glamour.
