Current:Home > MyThank you, Taylor Swift, for helping me dominate my fantasy football league -ValueCore
Thank you, Taylor Swift, for helping me dominate my fantasy football league
View
Date:2025-04-16 17:13:21
There was a remarkable piece of data that was on the NFL Network's fantasy football show recently about Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce. It was the most important statistic in the history of statistics because it had to do with Taylor Swift.
Kelce is averaging 22.3 fantasy points a game when Swift attends his contests. When she is not at his game that number drops to 17.6. This is the type of data analysis that wins Nobel Prizes. I'm serious. I'm not serious but that's still incredible.
There's more about the Swift Effect. ESPN's Stats & Info reported this week that in the four games Swift has attended, Kelce is averaging 108 receiving yards per game. He's averaging 46.5 when she's not at his games. Cause. Correlation. Checkmate.
"Kelce is getting better with time," said Kansas City coach Andy Reid, who if he had a fantasy team would also have Kelce on it. "Taylor can stay around all she wants."
Swift rules the planet Earth. She can go where she pleases.
NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.
Swift does a number of remarkable things including saving the economy. But Swift is doing something far more important: She is helping to lead my fantasy football team to a championship by inspiring Kelce.
Like many of you, I'm a fantasy football degenerate, err, player. I'm obsessed and Kelce is on one of my teams and for the season he has 48 catches for 525 yards and four touchdowns. Few other players, on either side of the ball, are in his class. Absolutely no one cares about my fantasy team except me, Travis, Taylor and Andy, but because of Kelce and Swift, my team, Borg Cube, is 6-1. And it's all due to my leadership skills and Swift.
Some of this is tongue in cheek, of course, and some of it is serious because, well, Swift is going to win me the title. But there's a larger picture here and it's just how remarkable Kelce has been this season.
I used to believe that former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski was the best player in history at the position. There are few tight ends in history that had Gronkowski's size (about 6-6 and 260 pounds when he played) and ran as fast as he did (about a 4.7 40-yard dash). He was one of the worst matchup nightmares of all time.
Cornerbacks were too small to cover him. He'd just body them, boxing them out like LeBron. He'd outrun linebackers, and safeties would struggle defending him because his route running was so sharp.
Gronkowski won four Super Bowls, made five Pro Bowls, and was named to the league's 100th Anniversary Team.
Remarkable, and even more stunning, is the fact that Kelce is probably better.
Like Gronkowski, everyone in the stadium knows Kelce will get the ball, and defenses still can't stop him. This goes beyond play calling and scheming. It even goes beyond the stratospheric skill of quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Kelce's ability to run routes with the smoothness of Justin Jefferson, and his uncanny second sense in finding openings in zone coverage makes him almost impossible to cover.
Also like Gronkowski, as good as Kelce is, the Kansas City tight end benefits from the accuracy of his quarterback. Gronk had Tom Brady and Kelce has Mahomes. Brady is the best quarterback of all time and Mahomes, who is just 28, has a realistic chance of reaching the same heights that Brady did.
Last week, at home against the Chargers, and with Swift watching, Kelce had 12 catches for 179 yards and a touchdown. NFL Research says it was his fifth career game with at least 10 catches and at least 150 receiving yards. No other tight end in history has four such games.
When it comes to just receiving yards in a game, only Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe is in Kelce's class, according to NFL Research. Kelce has five career games with at least 150 receiving yards; Sharpe has six.
Being in the same company as Gronkowski and Sharpe, and perhaps even surpassing them, is simply stunning. Kelce is doing things that football may never see again.
But back to the important thing: my fantasy team.
When I win my championship, and raise that imaginary trophy above my head, my opponents staring angrily, jealous of my Swift-charged title, I will remember her. Not because she's a worldwide star or generational talent who creates billions of dollars of revenue. No. Who cares about that?
I will remember her as my teammate who pushed Kelce to be his best. Thank you, Taylor. May I call you Taylor?
I will send you tickets to my victory celebration. But hurry. They are going fast.
veryGood! (5)
Related
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Some Yankee Stadium bleachers fans chant `U-S-A!’ during `O Canada’ before game against Blue Jays
- Olympic gymnastics highlights: Simone Biles wins gold in vault final at Paris Olympics
- Katie Ledecky cements her status as Olympic icon with 9th gold, 12 years after her first
- Grammy nominee Teddy Swims on love, growth and embracing change
- Forecasters expect depression to become Tropical Storm Debby as it nears Florida’s Gulf Coast
- International Seabed Authority elects new secretary general amid concerns over deep-sea mining
- Boxing fiasco sparks question: Do future Olympics become hunt for those who are different?
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- Third set of remains found with gunshot wound in search for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre graves
Ranking
- Finally, good retirement news! Southwest pilots' plan is a bright spot, experts say
- Medical report offers details on death of D'Vontaye Mitchell outside Milwaukee Hyatt
- Screw the monarchy: Why 'House of the Dragon' should take this revolutionary twist
- Watch these Oklahoma Police officers respond to a horse stuck in a swimming pool
- New data highlights 'achievement gap' for students in the US
- You’ll Flip for Why Stephen Nedoroscik’s Girlfriend Tess McCracken Says They’re a Perfect 10
- When does Simone Biles compete next? Olympics gymnastics schedule for vault final
- Who are the Americans still detained in Russian prisons? Here's the list.
Recommendation
Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
Kentucky football, swimming programs committed NCAA rules violations
American Grant Fisher surprises in Olympic men's 10,000 meters, taking bronze
Why USA's Breanna Stewart, A'ja Wilson are thriving with their point guards at Olympics
The White House is cracking down on overdraft fees
Josh Hall Breaks Silence on Christina Hall Divorce He Did Not Ask For
Katie Ledecky swims into history with 800 freestyle victory at the Paris Olympics
Aerosmith retires from touring permanently due to Steven Tyler injury: Read full statement