When the sports world convenes on Las Vegas on February 11, 2024, there will be two events happening simultaneously. There’s Super Bowl LVIII, with the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the San Francisco 49s. And there’s the probable appearance of Taylor Swift. The former are the two best teams in the NFL this season, meeting to decide which is the best of the best. The latter needs no introduction.
Whether you’re in Las Vegas for the game (lucky you) or you do what most of us do and watch Super Bowl 2024 from home, the annual title game is a huge event, with each being bigger than the last.
But that was before Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce started dating the biggest star the world has seen in some time.
There’s no avoiding any of this, really. Close your browser. Throw away your phone and laptop. Disconnect your Wi-Fi. You’ll somehow still have to hear about Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl. So let’s just not even try to avoid it. Let’s hit this thing head-on, shall we?
Why do I care about this?
We live in an era in which we simultaneously don’t have enough time to do everything we want, yet also have way too much time on our hands to worry about the dating lives of celebrities. (Also: The world runs on “content.”) Which brings us to Swift and Kelce. The two are a couple, and have been for most of the 2023-24 NFL season.
That meant that Taylor turned up at a bunch of Chiefs games this season, with a camera trained on her suite for much (if not all) of the game. And it means that Taylor has been the subject of even more scrutiny than usual — which is to say, a lot.
Look, this is none of our business. It’s all gotten way out of hand. And that’s even before the bad-faith political takes started happening. Celebrities should be able to date whomever they want and support each other’s professional lives. Good for them. (And she’s certainly been far better behaved in the stadiums than Kelce’s brother, Jason.)
So is she performing or not?
The Super Bowl Halftime Show is a big deal, usually, because it features huge stars. And there’s no bigger star right now than Taylor Swift. Chances are someone asked her, only to remember that she has concerts scheduled in Japan for four straight evenings, February 7 through February 10. The Super Bowl is the afternoon of February 11 in Las Vegas. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, which is 3:30 p.m. Vegas time.
But Swift is not performing at the Super Bowl. Usher is. As in R&B star Usher Raymond, who got big in the 1990s and has keep things going ever since.
Is it possible Swift will surprise everyone by singing at the Super Bowl? Almost certainly not. Never say never, but getting a microphone within 100 feet of her would eclipse anything any other performer could possibly do at the Super Bowl. The only thing that could possibly top even a Taylor cameo appearance onstage would be if the late Prince Rogers Nelson himself rose up, strapped on a guitar, and revisited his solo from My Guitar Gently Weeps on top of — not inside of — the Sphere. (And even then, he might have to somehow bring George Harrison along for the ride.)
Wait — will she even make it to the game?
Ah, you caught that. Taylor’s playing four nights in Tokyo. Assuming she goes straight from the show to the airport — Haneda, most likely, given its proximity to the Tokyo Dome — it’ll take about 11-and-a-half hours in the air to get to Harry Reid International Airport.
But you have to take the International Date Line into account. Through the magic of time zones, flying east over the Pacific Ocean causes you to actually gain fake time. Leave Tokyo at, say, 12:01 a.m. on. Sunday and you’ll arrive in Las Vegas in the early afternoon, the day before. (Airplanes basically are time machines, but that’s another post for another, erm, time.)
That’s assuming no mechanical trouble. But she’d have a backup plane on standby, right?
So all that is to say, yes, Taylor Swift almost certainly will be at the Super Bowl. And, yes, she almost certainly will be there as the world’s biggest spectator.
Is it OK not to care about this?
Yes! It’s perfectly fine to just focus on the game. Or not to focus on any of this. It’s OK to go about your life on February 11, 2024, as if it is any other Sunday. (Or any other February 11.) That’s the cool part about all this. The game will happen whether or not you watch it. Taylor and Travis will be just fine, whether or not you hang on their every move.
And other folks will still have an opinion about it. You can take that to the bank.
