Taylor Swift has become such a big part of the NFL season, we’re hearing her name everywhere.
On the Buffalo Bills’ first possession in Thursday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, quarterback Josh Allen audibled out of a play. And a lot of non-Swifties thought they heard Allen call out “Taylor Swift,” who of course is in a relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. If you haven’t heard that yet, congratulations on waking up from your months-long nap.
But is that what Allen said? Maybe not. Some thought they heard Allen say “J.R. Smith,” which would be a pretty cool and random shoutout to the longtime NBA guard.
This might be the NFL version of the blue and black dress (which was totally gold and white):
Maybe some NFL team will use “Yanny” and “Laurel” for their protection calls at the line.
We might have got our answer in the second quarter when Allen clearly used “LeBron James” as an audible. Maybe he just wanted to name check the entire 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers championship team.
NFL teams will have fun with code names for their plays at the line. Perhaps the most notable instance came when Aaron Rodgers used “New York Bozo” when New Jersey governor Chris Christie was attending a game at Lambeau Field. Maybe Allen just wanted to go viral and knew the best way to do that these days is to invoke Swift’s name.
If Allen uses “Bad Blood!” or “Cruel Summer!” as some pre-snap calls this season, we’ll know the truth.