Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson haven’t been shy about playing matchmaker when it came to Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift — albeit jokingly. The podcast cohosts and NFL on Fox coworkers received criticism for their praise of the Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro tight end.
But that hasn’t stopped Andrews (or Thompson) from being in Kelce’s corner. The lead NFL on Fox sideline reporter went even as far as to beg Swift to perform the Super Bowl Halftime Show. That hasn’t happened — at least not yet. But as an unabashed Swiftie and Travis Kelce fan, Andrews had the back of one of the greatest pass-catching tight ends of all time — and Swift.
Especially when those inside the Superdome did not.
“I feel bad for the most famous, amazing woman in the world, who f*cking gets booed at the Super Bowl,” Andrews said on her Calm Down podcast. “Get out of here. She handled it so well…”
Andrews also shared a moment she had with Kelce after the game as the reality of the Chiefs’ 40-22 loss set in.
“The shot that they have of him coming out of the locker room, and now you know he was going up to the suite,” Andrews added. “I didn’t. I was actually coming off the field, and he was just walking out. And I was kind of like walking, and I was like, f*ck it. And I just turned around, and I walked up to him because I was like, I don’t want to bug him, but I was like, ‘No, that’s our friend, and this really sucks.’
“And I just walked up to him, and he stopped, and I gave him a big hug, and I was just like, ‘I’m so sorry, I love you. I’m so sorry.’ They’re humans, too. This just in, you know.”
Reporters are also people, too, and friendships with athletes are part of the job. Andrews might be expected to stay impartial — and probably will be criticized for this — but on a night when boos rained down on Swift and Kelce walked off despondent in defeat, she wasn’t worried about critics or narratives.
She just saw a friend who needed a moment and gave him one.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.