This year’s Super Bowl viewership can be neatly divided into four segments: Those who like football and Taylor Swift, those who only like football, those who only like Taylor Swift, and those who like neither but are, for whatever reason, watching anyway.
For all the Swifties who are choosing to care about the Super Bowl for the first time — and all the football fans who need a crash course in Taylor Swift — here is a look at Sunday’s game as seen through Swift’s lyrics. So, as Swift herself says in “…Ready For It?,” baby, let the games begin.
Now we got problems / and I don’t think we can solve ‘em / You made a really deep cut / and baby, now we got bad blood — “Bad Blood”
First of all, there’s definitely some bad blood between Sunday’s teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. The two rivals faced each other in Super Bowl LIV in 2020, when the Chiefs dealt the 49ers a devastating loss, 31-20, giving Kansas City its first Super Bowl victory since 1970.
The game was a close one until the fourth quarter, when the Chiefs went on to score 21 points (three touchdowns) in an exhilarating finish, breaking the hearts of San Francisco fans in the process.
Given that history, it’s understandable that fans of the Niners — and the players themselves — might be out for revenge, ready to take what was taken from them.
But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time / Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time / I got a list of names, and yours is in red, underlined — “Look What You Made Me Do”
The 49ers quarterback, Brock Purdy, didn’t play that game in 2020, but he is out to prove himself. Two years ago he was Mr. Irrelevant, the very last pick in the 2022 NFL draft. He began his pro career as the Niners’ third-string quarterback. Now, after a surprising MVP-level season, he’s trying to take his team all the way.
Loving him was red — “Red”
Actually, there will be a lot of red happening. The Chiefs famously wear red and gold. So do the 49ers.
The burgundy on my T-shirt when you splashed your wine into me / and how the blood rushed into my cheeks, so scarlet, it was maroon — “Maroon”
One might say that the 49ers red is a tad darker, more maroon. Thankfully, though both teams’ home colors are nearly identical, the 49ers will wear their white away jerseys, as the Chiefs have been designated as the home team for the game. (The game will be played in Las Vegas, but the two NFL conferences, the NFC and the AFC, switch off every year on which team will be home and away.)
I knew you were trouble when you walked in — “I Knew You Were Trouble”
Trouble, as in Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who made an immediate impact in his first season as an NFL starter and at 28 is already chasing his third Super Bowl title.
Fans and analysts alike have already begun comparing Mahomes to Tom Brady, who has seven Super Bowl rings to his name. Mahomes, to his credit, claims he isn’t thinking about that, saying he’s focused on “doing whatever I can to beat a great 49ers team.”