Let's Address The Taylor Swift-NFL Haters -- A Tale Of Jokesters And Grifters

Taylor Swift is already the most discussed subplot of this year's Super Bowl.

The conversation took an unusual turn on Monday when former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speculated that Swift is a psy-op planted to influence the 2024 election on behalf of Joe Biden.

“I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month,” Ramaswamy said. “And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall. Just some wild speculation over here, let’s see how it ages over the next eight months.”

Ramaswamy's post incited other users -- some prominent; others not -- to push the theory that the NFL is rigged and assisted the Chiefs to the Super Bowl this season.

On Tuesday, FS1 host Colin Cowherd responded to the theories by blaming them on "really weird, lonely, insecure men."

"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 the network puts them on the air briefly, then it bothers you, what does that say about your life?" asked Cowherd.

The issue with conversations like these is the groupings. The anti-Taylor Swift NFL brigade is not monolithic.

There are three separate groups within.

There are the jokesters.

Many of the people complaining about the camera shots of Swift at NFL games are just having fun.

Swift is the biggest star in the country. The Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl champions. To non-Chiefs fans, Taylor and the team are the villains.

They are the Jordan Bulls.

Jokes about Swift are not malicious, sexist, or vile. They are like most jokes in sports: purposely irrational.

They are not that deep:

And, to be fair, Taylor did seem to be Yoko Ono-ing her man for much of the season with his repeated drops.

Am I wrong?

There are also the annoyed.

Sure, there are football fans who don’t care about a pop star and just want to watch football.

Are they losing sleep over it? No.

Are they boycotting the NFL over it? Based on the ratings, no.

But, yes, it can be annoying for the networks to show someone not involved in the game at the rate in which they show Taylor Swift.

At several points throughout the season, the broadcasts would cut to Swift's box following a play as opposed to showing a replay.

There's a line. At times, the networks crossed that line by over-focusing on a celebrity in a suite. Granted, that was more of a concern early in the season.

Believe it or not, not everyone is a Swiftie or interested in the sudden romance between a millionaire and a billionaire.

Damn them.

And then there are the grifters.

Like on the left, there are grifters on the right. The Taylor Swift-NFL conspiracy has brought some of them to the front of the line.

Like OAN host Alison Steinberg. Here's what she had to say about Swift and NFL fans on Monday:

"America’s pop star celebrity sweetheart joins forces with the top dog in the NFL playing for the team that’s going to the Super Bowl. I mean, let’s be real here. This is bread and circuses on steroids. Major league sports in and of itself is nothing but a psy-op. Get kids plugged into the cycle of going to public indoctrination camps, playing sports for their school, and going to games. Many end up devoting their entire childhood to competing in various sports only to be cut from the team, at which point they become brainwashed into supporting professional teams because they know their dreams of becoming a pro athlete will probably never happen.

"So then they become obsessed with some grown man who gets paid millions of dollars every year to throw a ball around while promoting poison death shots and child slave labor through various brand deals and endorsements. So sad.

"Just imagine for a moment if people were as dedicated to Jesus as they are professional sports. I think the country might look pretty different if that were the case. But sadly, as we know, it’s not."

Here's the full segment:

And that is how the right loses ground in the culture war: by being as kooky as the left.

Look, I am as convinced as anyone that there are systems in place to prevent Donald Trump from winning the election.

I wrote a column on Tuesday documenting how interference from the censorship industrial complex looms over 2024.

Government agencies and the tech industry meddled in the 2020 election. They'll do so again. Nothing is stopping them.

However, the "Taylor Swift is a psy-op" theory does not hold weight.

The NFL did not rig the AFC Championship Game for Kansas City. In fact, the refs kept Baltimore in the game with several ticky-tacky penalties late in the second quarter, which erased a touchdown for the Chiefs.

Second, Swift does not speak during Chiefs games. She doesn't address the crowd. She isn't scheduled to perform at the Super Bowl.

How exactly could she endorse Joe Biden during the event other than decking out in Biden-2020 gear in the box?

Third, Swift doesn't need the NFL to endorse Biden.

A Newsweek poll this week found that 18 percent of Swift fans say they're "more likely" or "significantly more likely" to vote for a candidate endorsed by Swift on her own platforms.

Swift can endorse Biden during his concerts or on social media, where the audience is wholly in her favor.

She might hurt Biden's re-election campaign by supporting him during a football game -- where as established, her approval rating is rather mixed.

The "Taylor Swift is a psy-op" theory gives the conspiracy theorists a bad name. That's unfortunate. The conspiracy theorists had been on a heater.