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At this point, I feel like anyone who doesn’t know Taylor Swift watched the Chiefs play the Jets on Sunday is in a severe minority based on how much coverage her presence generated. It was safe to assume the singer’s burgeoning relationship with Travis Kelce was the motivating factor in her decision to attend, but it’s hard to not be at least a little bit intrigued by a conspiracy theory that suggests it was actually a ploy to draw attention away from other jets that have helped her make headlines.
It’s hard to blame Swift for using a private jet to get around when you consider she’s currently one of the most famous celebrities on the planet, and she can certainly afford the convenience and peace of mind that comes with that particular form of air travel.
With that said, hopping on a P.J. isn’t exactly the best way to cut your carbon footprint, and in 2022, a study tracking the celebrities whose planes were responsible for belching the most CO2 into the atmosphere suggested T-Swift’s jet-setting had topped the list with annual emissions that were 1,184.8 times greater than the average individual.
That revelation got plenty of coverage online, and while people like myself might be willing to give her a pass, it’s also not the best look for someone who’s historically gone to pretty great lengths to cultivate a public image that’s been remarkably unscathed by the controversy that tends to come with living your life under a media microscope.
I can’t say I genuinely buy into a theory that was recently floated by data science expert Britney Muller, but I’d be lying if I said I totally reject the suggestion that Swift had an ulterior motive for attending a game involving the Jets when you consider searching some variation of “Taylor Swift Jets” on Google is now dominated by coverage of her appearance at MetLife Stadium as opposed to articles concerning her possibly problematic private jet habit.
If this approach sounds familiar, it may be due to another popular theory that suggests the folks at Disney opted to name a movie Frozen to suppress search results concerning a rumor the studio’s founder was cryogenically frozen after his death.
As is the case with many of the theories we’ve been treated to since Swift and Kelce harnessed NFL games for a soft launch, you probably won’t want to put too much stock into a Galaxy Brain Conspiracy that almost certainly boils down to the most obvious explanation: she went to a Jets game because Travis and the Chiefs were playing against them.
With that said, I want to believe.