Will Taylor Swift come to Minden?
Sounds ridiculous. Almost certainly is.
But this time last year, Taylor Swift wasn’t a feverish NFL fan. Her dad Scott did briefly play college football (in Hawaii!), and having been raised near the City of Brotherly Love, she has been a Philadelphia Eagles fan (although when people heard she was an Eagles fan, most of us assumed she was into the music by the band led by Glenn Frey and Gilmer, Texas native Don Henley).
So before this just-completed NFL season, Taylor cheered for Travis Kelce’s big brother Jason, an Eagles star for years on the offensive line.
But now that one of the world’s biggest pop music stars ever has fallen for Travis, she’s the princess of Chiefs Kingdom.
Which I’m all for. She’s in love with a Kansas City sports hero. She’s one of the best-known people on Earth. But she’s still a person, a real human, who seems to so desperately want to be as normal as her extraordinary world will allow. So if Taylor hearts Travis, she sure ought to be at his games, cheering on her man and his teammates. Just like he went to her concerts in Argentina during the Chiefs’ open date in October. It’s what couples do – enjoy each other. Support each other. Unabashedly.
I’d be disappointed if it was any other way. And I’d be puzzled if TV cameras didn’t find her at times during the 3-4 hours of game time to get a look at her vibe. After all, millions – no, billions – of people around the world are Swifties.
Crowd reaction shots are a cornerstone of sports coverage. Been the case for decades. So why is it so horrible that for an average of much less than a minute, all totaled, during a Chiefs’ game that lasts for over three hours, we get a glimpse at a world music icon – Time Magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year?
“I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and p****** off a few dads, Brads, and Chads,” she told Time.
She added: “I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in. There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once.”
There you have it: a Taylor Swift quote in your Webster Parish Journal. You get tremendous local coverage in the WPJ. And believe it or not, this IS local coverage.
Because as you know, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis is a teammate of Minden native L’Jarius Sneed.
Ten years ago, L’Jarius was a promising player for the Crimson Tide, lining up on Friday nights in The Pit.
Now he’s emerging as one of the better cornerbacks playing on Sundays in the National Football League.
And L’Jarius, Taylor’s boyfriend Travis, and a 28-year-old from alongside I-20, Patrick Mahomes of Whitehouse, Texas (outside of Tyler), were the Chiefs’ game captains for Super Bowl XLVIII in a town San Francisco Chronicle readers now know as “Loss Vegas.”
The Super Bowl victory was NOT the biggest thing to happen in Sneed’s life last week. He’s played in two Supe’s before, winning last year, losing in his NFL rookie season. He was never as prominent a figure on the Chiefs’ roster as he was this time, but he was never a girl dad, either.
That changed. Father of a six-year-old son, Sneed welcomed a daughter at the outset of Super Bowl Week with his girlfriend, model Bella Wu.
That’s a big deal. Sneed didn’t travel to Vegas with the Chiefs, missing Media Day and a practice, but was beaming when he met media on Wednesday.
Sunday night, his mom, his son and L’Jarius were making confetti snow angels on the field at Allegiant Stadium. You can find the video on the internet.
Sneed’s rookie contract expired as the game ended. He will cash a champions’ check of about $150,000, which will buy plenty of diapers. Analysts project he’s going to get a new NFL contract, almost certainly with Kansas City, in the neighborhood of $52 million, with about $30 million guaranteed.
All that won’t get Taylor and Trav to Minden, but you can bet L’Jarius will be back to visit, to inspire kids from generations to come and to thank those who believed in him along the way. It’s an against-all-odds story – with a tough family history of incarceration and the murder of his older brother in Minden in a 2021 stabbing.
L’Jarius didn’t leave home to play college ball at Louisiana Tech with any likelihood of an NFL career, just a vision of one. He was moved from receiver to cornerback in college, and he started to shine in his junior season with the Bulldogs. He got drafted, but in the fourth round, not as a high priority. He’s made the most of a rare opportunity – and a desperately needed one.
Taylor Swift’s first huge hit song was “Shake It Off.”
L’Jarius Sneed has.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com