Tackling love: Taylor’s version

By David Custer

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    SAGINAW, Michigan (WNEM) — Sara Hinson loves talking about Taylor Swift.

“I just enjoy everything about her,” she said.

Her husband, Monty, would rather talk football.

“Every weekend I’m watching Michigan football, Lions football,” he said.

His wife is a “Fearless” Swiftie, but he is not. They never thought in their “Wildest Dreams” this era of their “Love Story” would bring their two worlds together.

Swift’s public relationship with Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce has added a new dimension to the couple’s relationship allowing them to bond over professional football.

“It’s been definitely helpful and wanting us to kind of watch games together,” Monty Hinson said.

“I think she’s good for the NFL,” Sara Hinson said. “I think it’s brought in a lot of women to watching football and I mean, obviously, they’re making a lot of money with showing her, so they probably love it.”

According to APEX Marketing’s estimated brand value, Swift has generated more than $330 million for the Chiefs and the NFL.

“Now there’s a real excitement throughout the country and the world about the Kansas City Chiefs. And it’s a whole new audience that never really paid attention to football,” Monty Hinson said.

Time Magazine reports that week-over-week viewership of Chiefs’ games has gone up 63 percent among women 18 to 49 after Swift goes to a game.

“It’s like a running joke at my parent’s house, though, we’ll be like playing cards or a board game or something, and then all of a sudden they’ll be like ‘Taylor’s on the screen,’ for me so I can like look and watch her,” Sara Hinson said.

Monty Hinson said he loves seeing his wife’s newfound interest in professional football, but said some of his friends have expressed some “Bad Blood” about it all.

“Every time Travis Kelce catches a ball, they pan up to Taylor Swift, and it kind of takes you out of the game and more about popstars and not so much about football,” he said.

Even NFL coaches now find themselves talking about Swift at press conferences.

“She doesn’t bring in any of the publicity to herself. Like, if anything, that is shown of her with football, it’s other people bringing her up so she doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Jim Harbaugh said.

Swift’s public romance hasn’t proven to be a distraction for the Chiefs. They made it to the Super Bowl.

But the Hinsons were almost at odds over which team they were rooting for in the Super Bowl. Now, both are backing the Chiefs and say they are “Ready for It.”

“We made a joke every Sunday that my husband always has like ‘Go Lions’ and I always look at my daughter and say ‘Go Chiefs.’ And so if those two teams, the Lions and Chiefs, were in the Super Bowl, we would be a house divided,” Sara Hinson said.

“Definitely has brought couples together. I feel like even throughout more than just my family and my own experience, just the people I talked to, I feel like a lot more people have been watching the NFL this year talking about Taylor Swift,” Monty Hinson said.

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