NBC Cleverly Found a Way to Sneak Taylor Swift Into the Bears-Texans Broadcast

Taylor plus Swift equals promo gold.
Accidental Taylor Swift occurred during Bears-Texans
Accidental Taylor Swift occurred during Bears-Texans /

Sunday Night Football featured a legitimately entertaining game between the Chicago Bears and the Houston Texans in Week 2. There was drama for 60 minutes as rookie Caleb Williams got his first real chance to author a game-clinching drive during the final ticks—an opportunity that failed to capitalize on as the Texans prevailed, 19-13.

If there was a limitation, though, for the production team it was the relative lack of celebrity fans to capture with a cutaway shot. Something that might change on next week's telecast, which features the Kansas City Chiefs traveling to Atlanta to take on the Falcons.

Because Taylor Swift might be there.

NBC found a way to shoehorn this into the tease by finding Bears defensive lineman Darrell Taylor and running back DeAndre Swft on the Chicago sideline and put them up in side-by-side boxes.

The result: "Taylor Swift."

Other blogs will tell you that this little bit of extra stretching bothered them but, really, who cares? If someone can muster the energy to get upset about the artistic direction of a quick promo late on a Sunday night then things must be going super well otherwise.

To me it's reflective of a team that went into the game with a plan, hoping these two players would saddle up next to each other, and when they didn't they called an audible. That's quick editing and good producing on the fly. What more could you ask from a broadcast?


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Kyle Koster

KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.