Travis Kelce finally talked about his wedding to Taylor Swift this week, more than a month after the two of them got married at Madison Square Garden in front of about 1,100 people. At a press conference this week he called it “the best night of my life,” joked that the AC was cranking the whole time, and called Madison Square Garden “the mecca of all sports venues” — which, for a guy who plays football for a living, is a pretty good line. He referred to Swift as “my wife” like it was the most natural thing in the world. Because it is.
And that should be the whole story. Two enormously talented, enormously successful, by all accounts decent people found each other, fell in love, and got married in front of everyone they love. That is the story. Except it is not, because apparently a huge chunk of the internet cannot let two people be happy without turning it into a referendum on football, feminism, ratings, or whatever grievance happens to be trending that week.
I genuinely do not get it. I have tried to find a version of the hate that holds up and I cannot. Kelce is one of the best tight ends to ever play the game. Swift is arguably the most successful musician alive. Neither one of them has done anything to you. They are not asking you to like their music or their sport. They fell in love in front of cameras because that is what happens when you are both famous, and somehow that is treated like a crime.
So what is actually going on here? I think it is some combination of jealousy, boredom, and plain old meanness — probably all three at once, depending on the day. People see something good happening to people who already have a lot, and instead of feeling nothing, they feel entitled to be mad about it. It is an ugly instinct and it is everywhere right now.
The camera time complaint is its own special kind of dumb. Every time a broadcast cuts to Swift in a suite for a few seconds, somebody acts like the network committed a felony. Do the math. A Chiefs broadcast runs three and a half to four hours. Swift gets shown for maybe fifteen or twenty seconds of that. Networks have cut to celebrities at games forever. Jack Nicholson at Lakers games. Beyoncé at the Super Bowl. Whoever is sitting courtside at the Knicks that night. Nobody organized a boycott over any of that. The only difference here is that the celebrity is a woman dating an athlete, and suddenly it is a national crisis. Call it what it is. That is not a broadcasting complaint, that is sexism wearing a jersey.
Here is my actual worry. If a fifteen-second camera shot and a couple that seems genuinely happy is enough to send people into a rage, we have bigger problems than a football broadcast. Save the outrage for something that actually deserves it.
My two cents: let two happy people be happy. Watch the game or do not, but either way, grow up.
Photo of Madison Square Garden by Ajay Suresh via Openverse, licensed CC BY 2.0.