Can’t make short shrift of a Swift shift.
How can a phenomenon that gripped the National Football League last fall help the Baltimore Ravens this coming season?
Apparently, because the source of that pop-culture whirlwind ends up personally involved with a team member.
Per entertainment industry sources, 14-time Grammy Award-winning pop singer/songwriter Taylor Swift began dating Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson in early February after abruptly ending her previous relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Persons familiar with the situation, speaking to TSC on condition of anonymity, described the pair’s initial meeting.
“You could see it instantly; there was a chemistry there,” one of the sources said. “They were introduced to each other after the (AFC) championship game and had big smiles.”
About 90 minutes after that game – which the Chiefs won, 17-10, to advance to, and eventually win, their third Super Bowl in five years – Kelce and Jackson got together for a postgame hug and handshake in the bowels of M&T Bank Stadium just before the Chiefs’ team bus departed for BWI-Marshall Airport for the flight back to Kansas City. Swift was standing nearby and was introduced to the 27-year-old Ravens’ signal-caller.
Plenty of stadium personnel in the vicinity noticed the encounter as well.
“Really big smile (Jackson) had on his face,” one of the security guards said. “He walked right by me after the Chiefs’ bus pulled away. I heard him say something to the effect of, ‘She’s even prettier in the flesh, and that outfit was really dope. I like her.’
“I mentioned to one of my colleagues right there and then, ‘Those two are going to end up together.’”
Longtime Charm City-based Swift fans – part of her worldwide “Swifties” fan club – will get a chance to see her again real soon, thanks to a hastily arranged adjustment to her current “Eras” tour. Her management company will announce this week that Swift will play M&T Bank Stadium on Friday, May 24, a show that the 34-year-old Swift wanted to schedule for Memorial Day on the 27th but was told could not be done due to the Orioles having a home game that night against the Boston Red Sox.
Furthermore, Swift’s breakup with Kelce and a new relationship with Jackson fueled enough material for a hurriedly recorded and released new album, the working title of which is “At Wits’ End With The Tight End.” The first single to be released from the album will apparently be “I Want My Quarter Back.”
Obviously, a concert set to take place in such short order will require quickly printed tickets and a flash online sale, which will be done on TicketMaster’s various platforms on Wednesday, May 1. Reportedly, floor seats for the show, which will have no opening act, will go for about $3500-$4500, and all cellphone cameras will be confiscated at every gate.
Original lyrics for the new album, which Swift will play in its entirety at the Baltimore show, include the following from “I Want My Quarter Back,” a song written by legendary South Florida-based rap/hip-hop producer DJ Dum-Dum.
“Layin’ it down, Dum-Dum wanted me to / Was hangin’ with the tight end, like I wanted to / But he felt so tired, said I gave ‘im no slack / I said, ‘Boy, hit the road. I want, I want my quarterback.”
Several media reports after the Super Bowl stated that there had been friction between Kelce and Swift, including her new demands that he Facetime her while on the road instead of texting and that her monthly allowances be used on new clothes because Swift wanted the multi-time Pro Bowl pick to upgrade his wardrobe. Swift’s heavy financial commitment to Kelce was apparently the reference when “quarter back” was spelled as two words in the song title instead of the usual one.
Days after Swift’s stadium show in Baltimore, the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player – who, along with the rest of the Ravens, has a game scheduled in Kansas City this season – will report to the Under Armour Performance Center for the Ravens’ organized team activities (OTAs). Head coach John Harbaugh will be eager to get his quarterback for a very different reason.
“Apparently, he’s happier now than he’s been in a long time,” Harbaugh told TSC. “But it’s our job to get him focused and playing even better in our quest to win a championship, which we know we’re capable of doing.
“You can see it in his eyes. (Swift) has energized him, and maybe the karma the Chiefs got from her can rub off on us this year.”
(For a personal message from Lamar and Taylor, write down the first letter of each paragraph in order.)
