A story has gone viral on social media in recent days claiming the NFL is considering a “ban” that would keep music star Taylor Swift from attending the Super Bowl on February 11. Swift is expected to attend the game to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce with the Kansas City Chiefs, who take on the San Francisco 49ers. But the story is completely fake.
“NFL Reportedly Considering Banning Taylor Swift from Super Bowl, ‘We’re Tired of Her’,” the headline reads as it’s spreading far and wide on Facebook.
But the headline is a screenshot from a website called Esspots which labels its articles as “satire.” An account called SpaceX Fanclub has gotten over 19,000 comments on the fake article, with most people not realizing it’s a joke.
“Ridiculous! She is an extremely successful, young, kind, generous, talented business woman, just trying to live her life. Stop with the hate!!” on defender of Swift’s honor wrote on Facebook.
“She is a US citizen and has every right to be there if she chooses. That is discrimination at its best!!!” another Swift defender wrote, believing the story is real.
But not everyone was so supportive of Swift.
“Amen, I’m tired of her too !!” wrote on rare dissenter on Facebook.
Swift has become an unusual lightning rod for controversy in recent years, with some conspiracy theorists online floating the idea that the musician is a “psy-op” who only became popular due to artificial boosting from the U.S. intelligence community. Fox News has run multiple segments providing oxygen to the ridiculous conspiracy theory, even suggesting Joe Biden was also behind some kind of nefarious plot to indoctrinate young people into voting for Democrats.
While Swift did endorse Biden in the 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Biden, she’s largely steered clear of making bold political statements. And, again, there’s absolutely no evidence that Swift is some kind of “psy-op” for the CIA or any other shadowy government entity.
The Super Bowl is just over a week away and Swift is expected to be there at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada to support Kelce. There are even extensive social media posts examining how quickly Swift will need to leave her last concert in Japan to get back to the U.S. for the game in time. And that’s not fake news.
