Al Michaels reveals wanting to address Taylor Swift as Travis Kelce's fiancé during Chiefs game broadcast
On Tuesday, veteran broadcaster Al Michaels sat down with Jimmy Kimmel for an interview, where they discussed many topics, including the romantic rumors surrounding Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and pop star Taylor Swift.
At one point, a clip of the Amazon Thursday Night Football announcer struggling to process Swift's appearance was shown, to the laughter of everyone. In it, he can be seen saying:
“Looking on is [Kelce’s]… well at the moment… his good buddy and girlfriend, Taylor Swift.”
Michaels then revealed that he had initially planned to call her something much more ambitious:
“You know you’re doing a game like that, I know the internet’s going to blow up. You know what I really wanted to say?. Fiancée.
"I didn’t because I figured Travis would beat me up at the end of the game."
Al Michaels on acknowledging Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's purported relationship on air: "We had to be judicious"
Many mainstream sports outlets have not stopped talking about Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, but for play-by-play men like Al Michaels, acknowledging a cultural phenomenon like it can be tricky, especially when it comes to balancing it with covering the actual football play.
He had earlier touched upon this when speaking to Sports Illustrated's Jimmy Traina:
“What we’re gonna do tonight, everything in moderation. Our crew talked about it this morning. You can’t make a sideshow the show. The vast majority of the audience are tuning in to watch a football game.
“There might be an appropriate shot or a couple. I don’t know what the number is going to be. If Kelce scores six touchdowns, who the hell knows what we’re going to do. But for the most part, just in moderation. The game is still the important element here, by far."
In the same Jimmy Kimmel interview, Michaels doubled down on the struggles:
“We had to be judicious. We had the game last Thursday night in Kansas City. We knew she’d be there. So how much do you show her? She’d been on twice, and football fans were going, ‘Enough.’ But we were praying she’d come into the booth and sing for us.
"It’s hard because people tune in to watch a football game. I’m not doing Access Hollywood.”
The Kansas City Chiefs next host the divisional rival Los Angeles Chargers on October 22. Swift's presence in that game has yet to be confirmed.