Here's a Really Dumb Story About a Taylor Swift Banner and the L.A. Kings: Traina Thoughts

L.A. Kings to cover Taylor Swift banner at home games after fans complain

1. Here's another one for the "Sports Fans Are Deranged" files.

Apparently, a Taylor Swift banner that hangs in the Staples Center has offended enough L.A. Kings fans that the team now covers it up for every home game.

The people running the arena decided to celebrate T-Swift for having the most sold out performances there in 2015. Some Kings fans/weirdos blame the banner for L.A. not winning a playoff series since then. And somehow, people in charge of the Staples Center are listening to those people.

"The connection to our fans is our highest priority and through our engagement they have made it clear that the banner shouldn’t be part of their Kings game experience,” Michael Altieri, senior vice president of marketing, communications and content for the Kings and AEG Sports, told the L.A. Times. “We didn’t see an issue in covering it for our games and in fact see it as an opportunity to show our fans that we hear them.”

I'm not sure how a banner takes away from anyone's enjoyment of a hockey game and I'm also fascinated that a banner would annoy people to the point where they'd make an issue of it, but this IS sports fans we are talking about. 

2. As expected, SmackDown Live on FOX last Friday suffered a ratings drop without The Rock and a ton of promotion. After drawing 3.9 million viewers for its debut episode two weeks ago, the show brought in 2.9 million viewers Friday. Still a good number for FOX on a Friday night, but a 25% drop is still significant.

3. Excellent celebration by the Seahawks on Sunday, who busted out *NSYNC's "Bye, Bye, Bye" dance after a touchdown.

4. Niners tight end George Kittle had the most impressive run of the day on Sunday, tossing away Rams defender after Rams defender on his way to a big gain.

George Kittle is MONSTER 😤#SFvsLAR

(via @NFL)

pic.twitter.com/OriLpHMgfU

— PFF (@PFF) October 13, 2019

5. We already knew Tony Romo was a savant, so it shouldn't surprise us that he warms up for an NFL telecast by playing a little chess.

6. It doesn't seem like Jason Garrett's players are too fond of him.

7. The latest "Sports Illustrated Media Podcast" features a pair of interviews. First up is Michael Mulvihill, FOX Sports Executive Vice President and Head of Strategy. Mulvihill is FOX's ratings guru and he discussed why the NFL and its pregame shows have seen big increases this year, he explained what FOX expects from their new college football lineup and strategy, and revealed what the network wants from WWE's SmackDown Live, in terms of viewership. 

Following Mulvihill, Conrad Thompson, who hosts FIVE wrestling podcasts, joins the show to talk about the huge week in wrestling, the "Wednesday Night Wars," SmackDown's debut on FOX, his connection to AEW and what his week is like recording five podcasts with five different hosts

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.

8. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: I'm strictly a WWE follower. I never really watched TNA outside of some of the Hardy Boyz stuff. So this weekend, for the first time ever, I saw this old promo between Ric Flair and Jay Lethal as Ric Flair and it was one of the best wrestling things I've ever seen.