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NFL calls Travis Kelce 'Travis Swift' ahead of Chiefs-Dolphins playoff game

profilephotocropby: Suzanne Halliburton01/11/24suzhalliburton

The NFL really is using some special marketing to bring attention to the Chiefs-Dolphins opening-round playoff game. Otherwise, how else do you explain a “Travis Swift” reference in a promo video?

So what are we talking about? This section of an official NFL video. The narrator refers to the All-Pro Chiefs tight end as Travis Swift, then pauses for a beat and adds Kelce. We see what you did there, NFL.

Of course, we’re thinking everybody in this country who has ever listened to the radio or watched a smidge of a football game knows that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are a couple. They met before the Chiefs season started. By season’s end, the tight end and world’s most famous entertainer, spent the holidays together. Taylor always seemed to be at a Chiefs game, home or away. Plus, Kelce flew to South America in November to join Swift for a weekend on her Eras Tour.

Presumably, she’ll be on hand for the Chiefs-Dolphins, tucked away in a toasty suite at Arrowhead Stadium. She missed the regular-season game between the two teams, which was in Germany.

No doubt, the fashionistas watching will take note of her coat. After all, the game likely will be one of the coldest NFL games ever endured, and it’s not even in Buffalo or Green Bay. But on Saturday night, the game will have Ice Bowl vibes as an Arctic front sweeps through hours before kickoff. The high Saturday in KC will be eight degrees. It should be about zero degrees by kickoff. And that’s not the wind chill. Since there will be gusty, northwest winds, the feels-like temperature will approach a negative 20.

In fact, the weather is supposed to be so frigid for the Dolphins-Chiefs that it could be one of the coldest NFL games on record. The coldest was the infamous Ice Bowl, which spawned the Frozen Tundra line. That game was on New Year’s Eve 1967, when the Packers beat the Cowboys for the NFL championship. The temperature was a minus 13. The wind chills knocked the feels-like temperature to 50 below zero. The Bills-Steelers game will be frigid as well. But it’s an afternoon kick.

The NFL researched some of the league’s chilliest contests. Grab a coat and scarf, then check out the photos here.

And the NFL also may be hyping up the Taylor Swift angle the Chiefs-Dolphins to get people to watch. It’s not like the league needs to manufacture interest in either team. But unless you live in Kansas City or Miami, you’ll have to watch the game on Peacock, NBC’s streaming channel.