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(The Hill) — Fox Sports pundit Colin Cowherd on Tuesday dug into those complaining about singer Taylor Swift’s recent presence in the NFL, arguing the criticism says more about “weird, lonely, insecure men” than it does about the global superstar.
In a nearly four-minute rant on Cowherd’s Fox Sports Radio show “The Herd,” he lambasted those critical of Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs football player Travis Kelce and the attention that’s been placed on Swift during NFL games she attends.
“There’s a lot of really weird, lonely, insecure men out there,” Cowherd said. “The fact that a pop star — the world’s biggest pop star — is dating a star tight end, who had one of his greatest games ever, and a network puts them on the air briefly, that it bothers you … what does that say about your life?”
Cowherd accused those who say they “just want to watch football” of “lying,” noting the broadcasts are not showing actual games for a large portion of the events in any case.
“A football telecast is not just football. In fact, the commercials for four hours before the Super Bowl will be widely watched. Did you know, statistically in a three-and-a-half-hour NFL playoff broadcast or regular-season broadcast, just 18 minutes are actual football?” Cowherd said, referencing coach cutaways, clips of fans, commercials and reviews.
Cowherd pointed to a New York Times report last week that found Swift is typically shown onscreen for less than 25 seconds over the course of broadcasts that are longer than three hours.
Her latest appearance at Sunday’s Chiefs vs. Ravens game, in which Kelce broke the NFL record for career postseason receptions, spanned 32 seconds, the Times reported. More than half of that, 17 seconds, was an in-house promo for the CBS Network’s upcoming “Grammys” broadcast.
It makes sense that CBS would want to cross-promote the ultra-famous pop star ahead of its “Grammys” broadcast, Cowherd argued, discussing how he’s watched the network he works for — Fox Sports — “jam people on TV shows.”
Cowherd listed off a series of celebrities, all male, who are shown at sporting events, including singers Eminem and Drake, actors Matthew McConaughey and Jack Nicholson and film director Spike Lee.
“But a talented and beautiful woman is on the air — one who would never pay attention to lonely men, and it bothers them,” he said. “There’s a stat out there — it’s kind of uncomfortable for you sad guys — that 50 percent of men never have real intimacy with a woman. That means the other 50 percent have multiple intimate relationships with women, and those ones that don’t are angry and sad and lonely and they are often misogynistic and resent women who didn’t give them the time they think they deserve.”
“Again, judge people by the silly things that bother them … This anger says nothing about Taylor Swift, it says everything about the men bothered by it,” he concluded.
The apparent fury over Swift’s presence at NFL games is being further fueled by swirling conspiracy theories centered on the unfounded idea that the league is rigging games to make sure the pop singer and her boyfriend’s team both make and win the Super Bowl and eventually endorse President Biden’s reelection bid.
Questions surrounding Swift’s involvement in politics circulated Monday after The New York Times published a report about Biden aides vying for the support of the “All Too Well” singer as the campaign sets its focus on November’s general election.
The singer has yet to speak about endorsing Biden’s 2024 run, but she previously voiced her support for him in the 2020 presidential election during an interview with V Magazine. And last year, a single Instagram post from Swift directing her followers to the nonpartisan, nonprofit Vote.org prompted 35,000 new voter registrations.
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