'Wife' Taylor Swift? Is Dallas Cowboys Ex Tony Romo Doing A Comedy Bit?
FRISCO - The NFL's TV broadcast partners obviously have a good thing going with Taylor Swift becoming a "football-related superstar.''
There she is, most every weekend, the No. 1 pop star in the world, on your television screen, in a suite, watching the Kansas City Chiefs and rooting on her sweetheart, tight end Travis Kelce.
The romance, besides being lovely, has heightened Swift's profile with a new audience. It's heightened Kelce's profile with a new audience. (Though Chiefs fans, accustomed to the defending Super Bowl champs so often looking like the best team in the sport, would prefer more receptions, more touchdowns and more wins.)
Oh, and what it's done to CBS viewership! ... So much so that the network's top broadcast team, featuring Dallas Cowboys ex QB Tony Romo paired with Jim Nantz, almost now habitually weaves the presence of Swift into their presentation ...
To the point at which it's becoming a "bit.''
For the second time in recent weeks, Romo misstated Kelce and Swift's relationship, during Monday's broadcast referring to the singer-songwriter as Kelce's "wife.''
Oops. Stuff happens. Except ...
The last time Tony did this, he and CBS got a lot of mileage out of it. Yes, he took some social media abuse (because that is so often what social media does). But it seemed an honest mistake.
But how ... why ... would he make the same mistake again? And if you listen to it ... it sounds rather ... scripted.
"And his wife loves it, I mean, girlfriend,'' Romo said when the cameras - twice - showed Swift applauding a Kelce catch.
"You've been down that road with that before,'' Nantz replied with a chuckle.
Hey, we're fans of Romo's on-air enthusiasm. And this is supposed to be fun. And while we think the network's are overdoing the endless shots of one very compelling fan, we get the compulsion. The NFL and CBS are, after all, selling a product.
But if Nantz and Romo are pre-arranging for Taylor Swift-based comedy bits? The NFL and CBS should remind themselves that, yes, they are selling a product. And the product is football.
