There’s an unwritten rule in sports: everyone loves a winner until they win too much, and if you’re the Kansas City Chiefs, that moment when love turns to hate comes quickly.
Fans speculated after news broke about Travis Kelce’s popstar girlfriend, Taylor Swift, hate started rising. After every touchdown the cameras panned to Taylor celebrating, and many fans became annoyed with it.
Some think Taylor Swift created a different dynamic within the NFL. Jeffri Chadiha, a senior writer for the NFL said when Swift came into the NFL, it was like Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen.
“They became a super couple. You have a celebrity coming in, bringing in her own fanbase,” said Chadiha. “Swifties are very intense and passionate about her. The cameras going to her in games creates an element people don’t like.”
Rumors have gone around saying referees and officiants of games are being paid off.
“I know it’s not true,” said Chadiha. “If you followed the Chiefs a few years ago, the Bengals beat them like four games in a row, Chiefs fans were complaining about the officials then. They couldn’t stand Carl Cheffers, they thought he was out to get them.”
Kym Bennett, chair of psychological sciences, said that she thinks this is a case of the “Just World” Theory. The Just World Theory is a cognitive bias that assumes people receive what they deserve.
“You’ve got this widely accepted narrative now that the Chiefs are being helped out by the refs,” said Bennett. “People think that they don’t deserve to be where they are, and it’s very easy to turn on them.”
Fans also speculate other teams are resentful of the Chiefs due to them drafting Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes is the youngest player ever to win both a league MVP and a Super Bowl Title.
The Kansas City Chiefs selected Mahomes in the first round, 10th overall, in the 2017 NFL draft. The Chiefs, originally having the 27th overall selection, traded up in the draft with the Buffalo Bills for the 10th overall selection.
When Mahomes was drafted to Kansas City, the Chiefs already had star players like Chris Jones, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. Mahomes got dropped into a good position with an established team. This wasn’t the case for other quarterbacks like Josh Allen and Joe Burrow.
Resentment built from these teams knowing that their quarterbacks can be just as good, but weren’t spoiled with the same foundation Mahomes was.
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