Harry Fletcher
Feb 09, 2024
Bang Showbiz / VideoElephant
The 2024 Super Bowl is shaping up to be the biggest of all time – and not just because of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce or Brock Purdy.
In fact, the biggest name involved this year, at least to people who aren’t obsessed with the NFL, is Taylor Swift.
Swift, of course, is dating Kansas City Chiefs star Kelce, and more people than ever have been focused on games as the biggest pop star in the world watches on from the stands.
Inevitably, though, the attention on Swift and Kelce on and around the football pitch hasn’t all been positive.
Instead, a number of baseless conspiracy theories have been plastered across social media as people (and even popular US broadcasters) share increasingly deranged claims about the singer.
With so many eyes on the game this Sunday, these are the wildest Swift conspiracy theories out there right now.
Claims that the Super Bowl is “rigged” to get more viewers
Getty Images
The first conspiracy theory which has gained traction online is big enough to have been addressed by NFL chief Roger Goodell – and it’s also complete nonsense.
Theorists are claiming that the results in the lead up to Sunday’s game have been ‘rigged’, in order for Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs to be there playing and Swift to be in the stands.
It’s an odd theory, especially given that the Chiefs are a great side and have been at the Super Bowl three out of the last four years.
Discussing the theory, Goodell was very quick to pour cold water on it.
"The idea that this was in a script and this was pre-planned— that's just nonsense," the NFL commissioner said. "It's frankly not even worth talking about."
"I don’t think I’m that good a scripter, or anybody on our staff… There’s no way I could have scripted that one. Let’s just put it that way."
‘Swift is a government asset’
For some conspiracy theorists out there, the idea of the game being rigged so Swift can watch on is all connected to the baseless claims made by Fox News anchor Jesse Watters that the pop star is in fact
Watters was criticised over his completely groundless conspiracy theory about Swift earlier this year, which saw him suggest that she could be a government asset that could act as a “PSYOP for combatting online misinformation”.
"Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?" Watters asked during the segment.
"Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon's Psychological Operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A PsyOp for combatting online misinformation."
The Fox News anchor went on to suggest that Swift urges her fanbase to go out and vote in elections is evidence that she is being controlled by the government, and asked which White House official “got” Swift to do this.
The claim was widely slammed, and the Pentagon has also criticised Fox News's claim in a Swift pun-heavy statement to Politico, saying: “As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off. But that does highlight that we still need Congress to approve our supplemental budget request as Swift-ly as possible so we can be out of the woods with potential fiscal concerns.”
The private jet conspiracy
Getty
Much has been made of Swift’s private jet use – including trying to determine how she’ll get to the Super Bowl from a gig in Tokyo the night before – but one conspiracy started back in the early days of her relationship with Kelce.
The singer attended a few of Kelce’s games and it led conspiracy theorists to convince themselves that she attended the New York Jets game to detract from criticisms of her use of private jets.
Basically, some theorise that Swift's recent football game attendance means that when people search "Taylor Swift jets" the latest reports of her at the match will appear at the top of the search results, rather than links to data concerning her use of private jets.
Molly McPherson, a pop culture PR expert described the move as "brilliant" on TikTok.
"Of course, she went to the Jets game for SEO reputation busting. So when you Google 'Taylor Swift and the Jets' you don't get the story about her jet emissions - which most of the articles were digital by the way - you're gonna get Taylor Swift at the Jets game," she said.
@mollybmcpherson #stitch with @underthepink (Kristen) Now we have Taylor Swift’s OFFICIAL Response to the Private Jet CO2 Emission Plane problem from 2022. #taylor #taylorswift #seo #pr #publicrelations #fyp #prlady #thejets #nfl #airplane #crisiscommunication
Swift has ‘dark energy’ conspiracy
If you thought that was daft, then you’ve heard nothing yet.
Last a a conspiracy theorist on TikTok claimed the singer is “sadistic”, “satanic” and ‘harvests energy’ at her concerts in a bizarre clip.
Laura Renaud posted a TikTok last summer voicing her thoughts on Swift in a TikTok that starts with Renaud saying “here’s why I do not f*** with Taylor Swift”.
She then proceeds to explain her conspiracy theory to relate to her broader belief that “the world is run by shapeshifting psychopaths”. The latter is commonly believed amongst conspiracy theorists with links to anti-semitism and anti-Semitic tropes.
Renaud goes on to say “I am a ‘conspiracy theorist’, even though these are no conspiracies anymore people. All celebrities are controlled,” she goes on to claim.
“You need to understand that Hollywood and the whole entertainment industry had an agenda,” she says. “An agenda to program people, an agenda to lower people’s vibration.”
“I would never listen to her new s*** because I know that there is a dark energy behind her music,” Renaud shares. At one point she even goes so far as to suggest that Swift isn’t human.
She says that she would never “step foot” in one of her tour shows “because there’s energy harvesting rituals, there’s mind programming being done”.
“You need to understand we live in an energetic world and all of this has been thought out so long ago. So you have all of these young girls looking up to her … this is all part of the f***ing hoax.”
'Swift is actually the author behind Argylle'
Getty
Ok, so this one in particular has nothing to do with the Super Bowl, but we couldn’t resist resharing the theory that Swift is actually author Elly Conway.
Who is Elly Conway? Well, a mystery surrounds the identity of Elly Conway, the first-time author behind the spy thriller Argylle and many are convinced the novel was written by Swift herself.
The book itself isn’t out yet, but it’s already been adapted into a film in a reported $200 million deal with Apple TV and will be released on February 2 2024.
Author Elly Conway (Dallas Howard) is also a character in the story who breaks the fourth wall as an introverted spy novelist who gets too close to the world of espionage she bases her books on, only further adding to the real-life enigma and intrigue of it all.
No-one knows an awful lot about the real author and a result, it's left people such as TikTokers Jessica Lynn Slocum and Chloe (@chloeandpercy) to fill in the gaps and jump to the conclusion that Taylor Swift is the mystery author, and they’ve cited what they believe to be a number of (very) subtle hints that could point to this.
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