It's dumb to blame Taylor Swift for Kansas City's struggles against the Jets

Before there was the galactic superpower that is Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, there was another power couple that drew the attention of the NFL and beyond: Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and singer Jessica Simpson. The misogyny Simpson faced after the Cowboys started losing once the two began dating is repeating itself now with Swift and Kelce.

While Swift and Kelce are stars of a magnitude higher than Romo and Simpson, the latter couple were still one of the most talked about in the country at the time. They dated for about two years between 2007 and 2009. She was a popular performer and he played for the most high-profile team in maybe all of sports. Her being at his games and their public appearances became a huge story in sports. Then, of course, the inevitable happened.

The Cowboys, as they often do, began to lose, and Romo also struggled. It wasn't unusual for the Cowboys, then and now, to lose games. Still, Simpson was blamed, and the fury that was aimed at her, and not just from the troglodytes, but from people in the media who should know better, was astounding. It got so bad she earned a nickname with some fans: Yoko Romo.

Simpson addressed the fact she had become a target during an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. She believed the anger at her was because she wore a pink No. 9 Cowboys jersey (Romo's number) and not a blue one. But of course that wasn't the reason.

The pivotal moment came in January of 2008 when Simpson and Romo were photographed vacationing in Mexico days before the Cowboys were scheduled to play the Giants in the playoffs. Dallas lost and the Giants went on to win the Super Bowl. The blaming of Simpson was so bad, and so virulent, even the President of the United States joined in, cracking a joke about it when he welcomed the Giants to the White House in May of 2008.

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"We’re going to send Jessica Simpson to the Democrat National Convention," George Bush said.

Get it? She was considered a bad luck charm so Bush wanted to send her bad vibes to the Democrats. Really funny.

Simpson spoke to Vanity Fair in 2009 about the impact of the scrutiny on the couple. "We don't let it affect our relationship," she said. "If we did, we wouldn't be together, because it happened at the very beginning. Dating the Cowboys quarterback comes with hype, the fans, the bloggers, but I've never dated a guy that was more simple. I'm always there for him after a game, and he knows he has me to come home to."

Fast forward to this week and Kansas City struggling against a sorry Jets team. We're starting to see what happened to Simpson, start happening to Swift. And like before, it's coming from people who should know better.

"Mahomes two terrible picks," said ESPN's Mike Greenberg, on X, formerly known as Twitter, where he has over one million followers. "Kelce one terrible drop. (Kansas City) take this game lightly? All the Taylor stuff a distraction? Whatever it is, they look awful."

Swift had nothing to do with Kansas City struggling. If you know even a little about Kansas City under Andy Reid, the team, several times a year, will play down to its competition.

This also isn't to say that Greenberg is sexist. But mentioning her as a distraction plays into some of the same tropes that we saw with Simpson.

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Distractions with NFL teams are generally vastly overrated. The only things that cause even minor ones are contract issues and if a head coach is fired during the season. And even these distractions are something players can deal with. Part of being a professional athlete, and what allows them to reach these unbelievable heights, is that they can be singularly focused. No player with the mental toughness to reach the upper echelons of the NFL is going to be distracted by Swift having drinks in a luxury box.

In fact, the players and atmosphere around the Kansas City team is a festival of distractions. There's Patrick Mahomes' brother. There's Mahomes' numerous commercials. There's Kelce's numerous commercials, too. There's Reid being in commercials. Good for them. They've all earned the right to make as much cash as they can outside of football, but all of those "distractions" have happened and the team won a Super Bowl.

And if Swift is such a distraction, why is the NFL leaning so hard into the entire phenomenon? As of Monday afternoon, the league's X account, which has 33 million followers, featured three photos of Swift and a lyric from one of her songs: "We had the best day with you today."

This Kansas City team is remarkable at what it does. Yet they are still a group of human beings and like other great NFL teams, sometimes they are not at their best. Sometimes they let an opponent hang around when they shouldn't. Even when that opponent is as bad as the Jets.

It happens.

And I promise you, it will happen again.

When it does, it will have nothing to do with Swift.