Elle Duncan defends Taylor Swift after Travis Kelce’s distraction claims
ESPN sports reporter Elle Duncan No more blaming the ‘fathers, Brads and Chads’ Taylor Swift for Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs’ game day appearances.
“You can’t blame Taylor Swift for being a ‘distraction’ because Travis Kelce didn’t play well, because the Chiefs played well. No, it’s not her fault,” Duncan, 40, said during her latest episode “Elle Duncan Show” podcast. “I’m so tired of us doing this. And we do this with women.”
She continued: “It is Jessica Simpson‘s fault [that] Tony Romo spit the piece. To remind Kim Kardashian And Miles Austin for a hot second? It’s her fault. It’s always the woman’s fault for being ‘distracting’. No one asks if Travis Kelce is distracting her from a world tour. Nobody says that. And I don’t like that.”
Swift, 34, has been a fixture at boyfriend Kelce’s Chiefs games since September, when they went public with their summer romance. During games, the NFL has regularly featured Swift on the Jumbotron, drawing the ire of diehard sports viewers.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship timeline
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are all anyone can talk about. Swift and Kelce were first linked in July 2023 when the Kansas City Chiefs tight end said he wanted to ask Swift out after attending her Eras Tour. ‘I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t give her one of the bracelets […]
Swift and her family – mother Andreadad Scott and brother Austin – recently attended the Chiefs’ Christmas Day game. After Kelce, also 34, and his team lost to the Las Vegas Raiders, social media fans immediately blamed the loss on Swift’s presence.
“It feels like it’s time to call Taylor Swift a distraction. What do you think, Patrick? Andy? What about you, Travis? FOX sports journalist Skip Bayless wrote via X (formerly Twitter) at the time.
Duncan, for her part, is over Bayless, 72, and other NFL fans citing Swift as the sole reason the Chiefs are underperforming this season.
“I don’t like that this has suddenly become: ‘This is too much, let’s direct it at Taylor. He’s distracted, like he can’t have a personal life or a professional life,” Duncan insisted. “Go away. He’s Travis Kelce, stop. It’s not her fault. So please stop. Stop that story. Not okay. Stop.”
Swift and Kelce, meanwhile, haven’t let the online chatter deter them from their romance.
“I don’t know how they know which suite I’m in.” There’s a camera about half a mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera puts you in it. the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m on seventeen times or once,” Swift said earlier TIME in her Person of the Year cover story earlier this month. “I’m just here to support Travis. I have no idea if too much of me is being shown and I’m pissing off some dads, Brads and Chads.”
Kelce even called out the same “dads, Brads and Chads” for berating Swift during the Monday, December 25, game.
“I will say this: They showed Taylor during the game, and you don’t see an entire home team fan base going crazy when someone wears the other team’s colors. It just shows you how amazing that girl is,” he said on the Wednesday, Dec. 27 episode of his “New Heights” podcast. “They went crazy when they showed Taylor on screen. … I tried to keep it calm, I was like, ‘Don’t show your cards.’”