Taylor Swift isn’t performing at halftime of Super Bowl LX, reportedly due to a collapse in negotiations with the NFL. She disputed those reports during a Monday appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Via Margaret Fleming of FrontOfficeSports.com, Swift said that she’s focused on supporting her future husband, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, as he tries to get back to the game for the fourth straight year — and to win it for the fourth time.
“Jay-Z has always been very good to me,” Swift said, referring to the fact that Jay-Z produces the Super Bowl halftime show. “Our teams are really close. They sometimes will call and say, ‘How does she feel about [the Super Bowl]?’ And that’s not an official offer or a conference room conversation. . . . We’re always able to tell him the truth, which is that I am in love with a guy who does that sport on that actual field.”
It sounds as if Swift won’t be interested until Kelce retires, at the earliest.
“The whole season I am locked in on what that man is doing on the field,” Swift said. “Can you imagine if he’s out there every single week putting his life on the line, doing this very dangerous, very high-pressure, high-intensity sport, and I’m like, ‘I wonder what my choreo should be? I think we should do two verses of ‘Shake it Off’ into ‘Blank Space’ into ‘Cruel Summer’ would be great.’”
The question becomes whether a deal can be reached after Kelce is no longer playing. Multiple reports indicated that the NFL passed on her requests, which reportedly included ownership of the rights to the performance.
Even if that didn’t happen for the next Super Bowl, it’s a potential roadblock to any future deal. Although the league is very accustomed to dictating terms to anyone and everyone, Swift doesn’t need the NFL. And Swift has given the NFL two years of free publicity, which has expanded the league’s fanbase and goosed TV ratings.
Whatever the ratings for a Super Bowl halftime show without Swift will be, the ratings of a Super Bowl halftime show with Swift would be even higher. And so the NFL will eventually ask itself how badly it wants the ratings boost that would come from persuading Swift to do the show.
