It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, it's NFL cut day. Got a couple of guys who lost their jobs. A lot of guys lost their jobs. And we got a couple of guys who were elevated.
And then we got a future Hall of Famer who is now engaged to one of the biggest pop stars. on planet Earth. Of course, I'm referring to Travis Kelsey. And then also Taylor Swift. To talk about this and the big old news that we got earlier today is someone who covers all things between the intersection of pop culture and sports from The Athletic.
Joining us right now is staff editor Hannah Van Bever. Hannah, how are you? Great. How are you? I'm excellent.
Thank you for taking the time to join us. Uh I can't say surprising news given the podcast episode that we got a few weeks ago. I don't ever remember Taylor Swift sitting down on a podcast, but It seemed to be that this was kind of the next step, given how open they were a few weeks ago. Yeah, it sure was. I think a lot of Swifties online were saying they seem like they're engaged when they were on that podcast, just the bonny language.
And of course, Swifties are obsessed with all the Easter eggs and secret messages.
So I mean, I was shocked today, like that it came out this afternoon on a Tuesday, but I was also not shocked at the same time. Do you think, knowing what Travis went through last season, he didn't have the best of the years? The Chiefs got smacked around in the Super Bowl. He's lost weight, he's slimmed up. Do you think this is it for him in a Chiefs uniform so he can focus in on his his wedding after this?
That is a great question and I wouldn't pretend to be a Chiefs expert, but I do know that this is his 13th season, which is an important number in the Swift universe. And I also just know from, yeah, her favorite number. And did you know today is the 26, which is 13 times 2.
So her favorite number. With Travis times two. And this is also 13 days after that pod, the they announced her album on the podcast. Anyways, I digress. My colleagues who work with the Chiefs said Travis was looking great at practice today.
He was doing knee pulls and leg kick stretches like nothing was going on.
So he is certainly showing up. On if this is his last year of his current contract, he's showing up. like he means business. But I think we're expecting the Chiefs to start maybe limiting some of his time and thinking about what's next if he's gonna go into free agency and what happens. I mean, I could see him getting married and settling down.
Doing whatever's next, podcasting. Being an analyst, whatever he wants to do, really. Yeah, I think we can expect to see him on more TV shows and hostings, and he's already done a lot. A good taste of that. Hannah Van Biber is joining us here on the JR Sport Reef Show, courtesy of the The athletic.
You mentioned Taylor Swift. I know there are a lot of people who haven't been happy. With the amount of attention that she's gotten in games and during games and entrances, I'm sure that there's people listening right now going, oh, about this. This Taylor Swift stuff. But can you talk about the impact that she has had on the NFL even up to now?
Absolutely. I mean, everyone we've spoken to in the NFL, including players, say they feel like she's had a really positive impact. All attention is good attention in some ways in this attention economy, and Taylor Swift is a genius. at leveraging that. We did a poll of players last year, and over 75% of them said they think she's a really good positive thing for the league.
She's brought. new fans, a new fan base, she's brought families together and obviously she's brought a lot of dollars.
Well, Hannah, when you you think about her her popularity. Like, how popular is she? I can name a few songs. I don't bump Taylor Swift in my car. I'm more of a mob deep type of guy.
Like, talk about her global popularity. Yeah, she is maybe the most famous woman alive. I mean, Lisa from Blackpink could probably give her a run for her money, but on her post about her engagement, it's already up to 22 million likes, which isn't even to say views. It was over 1 million within less than 10 minutes. She is.
Certainly, her ERA's tour was all over the world. It was the highest grossing musical tour of all time.
So she certainly is perhaps the, I guess, queen of the world right now in the pop culture sense.
So she has a huge, huge global impact.
So, Hannah, once we get through this season, we saw the engagement. I think if they were married, they would have already shared maybe some photos. What do we expect? The feeling of just showered freshness can't be beat. With downy intense?
Bursts of just showered freshness can accompany you throughout the day. Really? See ye Downey Intense's touch-activated technology releases bursts of clean, fresh aromas.
so you can enjoy the feeling of your showered freshness. New, downy, and tense. An incredible freshness experience awaits. Over this next year.
So we know his football season for him probably is going to end in January, for his sake, maybe February. But you mentioned her album. You talked about she just came off of a tour. Things are going to be rather quiet by the time they get to winter spring, right? No?
Well, it's hard to say if she's going to be on a tour. There's a lot of rumors that she could end up doing the half time show at the Super Bowl, although that would be awkward if the Chiefs don't make it. Don't hate me, Chiefs fans. She may, there are also rumors that she may do a residency at the sphere in Vegas.
So, until her album drops, or until we hear the next piece of news, which we already know, she could drop it at any moment. We don't know what it's going to look like, but I would say if they're not already married, which some people think maybe they got secretly married, the wedding should be in the football offseason, which would be like. In, let's say, after February, before June, probably.
So, Josh Allen got married, I think it was May 31st.
So I could expect things to start kicking up. I mean, this is kind of America's royal wedding.
So I think they'll have a lot of planning to do. Yeah, nobody cared about all these other guys getting married to. You talked about, see, I don't know the name. Josh Allen is married to what actress now? And it's Haley Steinfeld.
She's an actress and a singer. Yeah, she was in Sinners, which was the best movie of the year so far, I'd say. Nobody cared about that one. Russell Wilson. No, but Russell Wilson got married to Sierra.
It didn't get this amount of attention, right? It sure didn't. No, it absolutely didn't. They had such a quiet wedding and just fans were aware of that. I remember when that happened, but yeah, it's very different.
And I think it goes back to what you were saying about just how absolutely famous. Taylor Swift is and some of it goes to, I think, as well, that she is really good at spinning her narrative in a way that grabs attention. And that really speaks to her fan base. Yeah. Like, I know Christian McCaffrey is married to.
What does she do? Is she a model? What does she do? Yeah, she was, I think, I'm going to say this wrong, but she was a baby Miss Universe. Oh, look at me.
Olivia Colpo. Yeah. And probably an actor She's a model, too. They had a baby recently, I think, and that was quiet. A lot of it is just: do they want people to know?
Are they making, are they tapping those networks of publicists and media? And I think Taylor has done that. And again, they're announcing an engagement and an album.
So it's all to kind of promote their brand. It's a really savvy way to Have your private life public, but also maintain some boundaries and make money. That's exactly right. She sure knows how to make money. Hannah Van Bibra.
She is a billionaire. Hannah Van Bibra has been joining us from the athletic. Hannah, I'm a leave you with this one. If they should have a child at any point in time, if they do, there's of course there's no guarantees that they want it. I don't know.
We don't know. None of my business, but it is my business. It's personal or public, whatever. Will the world explode if they have a child? I think that's the only answer.
Absolutely. The internet will end because it will collapse. This would be more famous than any of them Royals, right? It'll be a bigger kid than any of the Royals. Absolutely much bigger than any of the Royals and honestly a lot richer than any of the Royals.
Yeah, we have probably more athletic.
Well, yeah. And we she's she's tall. What is she? Is she she's long and athletic too? What is what is Taylor says?
Is she 5'10, 5'11? Yeah, she's real tall. I know. I know. Leave something for the rest of us.
What are our kids gonna do? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. This kid we don't even have uh famous presidential kids running around anymore. Only presidential kids are old.
They'd have a baby. It'd be uh Be game over. Or, Hannah, thank you. It would be. Hannah, thank you so much for the time.
Tell everybody where they can follow you and your work with the athletic.
Well, you can get on theathletic.com and look for me, Hannah Van Bibber. Follow all of our good coverage. I have a video coming out this week that's actually on this about Taylor Swift betting odds and how markets are trying to get in on that from sports books, too.
So everyone's trying to get a piece of the Taylor Swift pie.
So keep an eye on us on social, The Athletic HQ. I'm Hannah Van Bibber. And thank you so much for having me on to talk about my favorite subject. Absolutely, Hannah. Thank you.
We'll catch you down the line, okay? All right. Thanks so much. Have a great night. The feeling of just showered freshness can't be beat.
With downy intense? Bursts of just showered freshness can accompany you throughout the day. Really? See ya. Downey Intensive's touch-activated technology releases bursts of clean, fresh aromas.
so you can enjoy the feeling of just showered freshness. New, downy, and tense. An incredible freshness experience awaits.
