NBA legend Charles Barkley has said NFL fans complaining about how Taylor Swift has ‘ruined football’ are either a ‘loser or a jacka**’.
Certain sections of the NFL fan base have become frustrated by the amount of attention given to the pop star during broadcasts of Kansas City Chiefs games.
Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, has been at 12 of his games so far this season and is expected to make it 13 at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas next week.
Her appearances have caused a huge spike in TV viewing figures and brought an entirely new demographic to football, which is receiving a boom in because of the popstar.
Despite that, a certain section of football fans believe the singer is getting too much attention and detracting from the action on the field.
Charles Barkley says football fans complaining about Taylor Swift are either a ‘loser or jacka**’
Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, has been at 12 of his games so far this season
He said on CNN: ‘If you’re screaming at Taylor Swift saying she’s ruined football. You’re just a loser.
‘You’re just a loser or a jackass. One of the two.’
Sports broadcaster Bob Costas agreed with Barkley and hailed the popstar for having such a huge impact on the sport.
He added: ‘When it comes to the Super Bowl, where a lot of people who don’t watch football all year long double the audience even of the conference championship games, part of that is the half-time entertainment, the commercials.
‘So people all of a sudden because they don’t like something about Taylor Swift, they don’t like the Chiefs or they’ve inferred Taylor Swift might not be a Trump-er then they are annoyed by her.
‘I can guarantee that all this news on Fox news would not be happening if she was wearing a MAGA hat. They would love it.
‘It’s hard to imagine the Super Bowl could have a larger rating but in a small percentage it may even up that and in terms of merchandise sales – the Travis Kelce jersey and all the rest – and the attention to regular season games the NFL reigns supreme over sports but over all of American entertainment.
‘In a fractionalized universe it is the only thing that consistently aggregates huge audiences.’
On Wednesday night, FOX analyst Colin Cowherd defended broadcast networks for showing Swift while criticizing people who continue to complain about how often she’s showed on air.
In a rant, Cowherd blasted those critics saying their complaints were overblown and that their vitriol toward Swift may be rooted in sexism.
‘There’s a lot of really weird, lonely, insecure men out there,’ Cowherd began.
Cameras regularly cut to Swift in a suite cheering on her boyfriend during games this season
FOX’s Colin Cowherd went on an explosive rant against men complaining about Taylor Swift
‘The fact that a pop star, the world’s biggest pop star, is dating a star tight end who had one of his greatest games ever [in the AFC Championship game], and a network puts them on the air briefly, that it bothers you. What does that say about your life?
‘Judge people sometimes on the silly stuff that bothers them. It’ll tell you a lot about them. When I hear this whole thing about Taylor Swift, [people say] “I just want to watch football.” Liar. You’re lying. That’s not true.
‘A football telecast is not just football. In fact, the commercials for 4 hours before the Super bowl will be widely watched. Did you know, statistically, in a three and a half hour NFL playoff broadcast or regular season broadcast, just 18 minutes are actual football.
‘And we have the data, we have the numbers. You don’t turn away. There’s coaches cutaways. They show fans in Buffalo on fire. Commercials, reviews, 18 minutes of real football for the record, about the length of five Taylor Swift songs.
‘Listen to this. The New York Times measured how long she was actually on the broadcast. Do you know how long it is? On average? 25 seconds. In three and a half hours. Against the Ravens, it was up to a whopping 32 seconds. It was 14 [for] Chiefs and Raiders on Christmas. Twelve [for] Chiefs and Bengals, 24 seconds [for] Buffalo-Kansas City.
‘She was on for a minute against the Dolphins. But it was an absolutely awful broadcast. They should have had a concert in the middle of it. That would have been more interesting. And why wouldn’t CBS, which, you know, has the Grammys, cross promote the world’s biggest pop star?
‘Hey, listen, I work at the other network. I work at Fox. I’ve seen us jam people on tv shows I would never watch during football games and sporting events. Don’t forget to watch this right after the game. I’ve already forgot about it. Let’s get back to the game. But I don’t have to rush to social media. I’m okay with it.’