With a 27-24 victory over the Bills at Highmark Stadium in the divisional round of the playoffs on Sunday night, the Chiefs clinched their sixth-straight appearance in the AFC Championship Game.

In other words, Kansas City has made it to the conference final every year since Patrick Mahomes became the starting quarterback. The Chiefs will be trying to get back to the Super Bowl for the second year in a row and the fourth time in the past five seasons.

Standing in Kansas City’s way will be a Ravens team that clinched the AFC’s top seed, home-field advantage and a bye. Baltimore then blew out the Texans in the divisional round last Saturday.

The football world will tune in on Sunday at 3 p.m. to watch the Chiefs take on the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.

The pop culture world will also tune in, and all eyes will be on…Taylor Swift. I mean, they will only be on Swift when the CBS broadcast crew cuts to her, which will be a lot of the time. This will anger many folks for reasons that have yet to be explained to me, other than “It’s football, damn it! I don’t care about no romance! Besides, why don’t they ever show Metallica watching football in the luxury boxes? How about some cutaways to Chris Stapleton!”

Obviously, Swift has been dating Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce, since well before the 2023 season kicked off, and you just know that Kansas City making it to yet another Super Bowl–and with Swift in the mix as the girlfriend of one of its most high-profile players–would be America’s worst nightmare…not all of America, but enough of it that we’ll have to listen to endless whining, crying and threats to boycott the game.

People can boycott the game if they want, but they won’t be able to prevent Super Bowl LVIII from garnering the highest ratings in the history of the event. And it would be an event for the entire planet. We’re talking about an internationally famous pop singer. She’s known all over the world. People know who Swift is in just about every country around the globe. Kelce isn’t known internationally. The Chiefs aren’t known internationally. The NFL might be a known commodity around the world, but not so much that folks would recognize some of its most famous players if they stopped in a local pub for a beer.

There’s only one team that can prevent this, and that’s the one led by John Harbaugh, the Ravens head coach who likely doesn’t know many of Swift’s songs. I get the feeling Baltimore will be America’s team this week, at least for those who hate Swift for, again, reasons that are truly unclear to me.

As for me, I’ll be rooting for the Chiefs. For one thing, I hate the Ravens. For another thing, I love Taylor Swift. For a third thing, I like a good story. And for a fourth thing, I like it when things that really shouldn’t bother people bother the hell out of a lot of people.

The Chiefs, the defending world champions and a team that’s been on the top of the mountain for far too long, in the Super Bowl yet again + Taylor Swift? My goodness, what a story that would be. The material would be endless. The angst would be palpable. Fortunately, the angst wouldn’t stop Swift from being the Super Bowl’s top story for two weeks. Why? People love Taylor Swift way more than they hate her.

But if you want the boring Ravens in the Super Bowl, a team that doesn’t have any players currently dating international pop stars, fine.

The Ravens against the Lions/49ers in the Super Bowl? Yawn. The Chiefs/Swift vs. unnecessarily angry people in the Super Bowl?

Sign me up.

Go, Taylor!