After disparaging Swift’s romance with Travis Kelce in May, the 35-year-old NFL WAG acknowledged to listeners of the “The Morning After” podcast on Thursday that she allowed jealousy to influence her assessment of the 34-year-old singer.
Stafford now acknowledges that her complaint that she didn’t “want to see another four months of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce coverage” ahead of the 2024 NFL season was motivated by jealousy.
Kelly Stafford addressed her past comments about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce on her podcast Thursday.
“I think there’s just this… This Taylor Swift phenomenon is a cloud in the sky. In the most recent show, she told her co-host Hank Winchester, “Now, I have never once said I didn’t like Taylor Swift — ever.”
Swifties came for the NFL WAG in May after she said she didn’t “want to see another four months of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce coverage.”
The podcaster, who is married to Los Angeles Rams star Matthew Stafford, explained that she “got kind of tired” of the NFL’s unrelenting spotlight on the singer — which she acknowledges isn’t Swift’s fault.
“Can she do anything about that? No, she can’t,” Kelly conceded.
Although Kelly admitted “it was a good business decision for the NFL,” she felt the incessant coverage “was outshining the games.”
However, Stafford admitted she was just “jealous.”
“I was a little jealous of the fact that they were getting all this attention and all of a sudden the football game was the sideshow,” she said of the couple’s high-profile romance.
“I think that’s what bothered me,” she continued. “I was a little jealous of the fact that they were getting all this attention and all of a sudden the football game was the sideshow. So yeah, maybe I let jealousy get the best of me.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Kelly explained that she had to step back and process her emotions before figuring out the root of her issues.
“I was like, ‘Why was I feeling that way?’ And it really was, I had some jealousy issues of the fact that she all of a sudden became the main show in NFL football … or their relationship,” she explained.
Stafford felt like her husband, Matthew Stafford, and other NFL players were overlooked due to the focus on Swift and Kelce’s relationship.
However, the mother of four insisted she has always “loved” Swift and knows she doesn’t have control over the NFL’s coverage.
“And I watch my husband work his ass off and I watch all these guys who play for the league work their asses off and all of a sudden they’re like the sideshow,” she added. “So that is where that kind of came from.”
Despite her jerk reaction to the situation, Kelly insisted she has always “loved” the “Fortnight” singer’s music and has been a big fan since the very beginning.
“I was a fan of hers when she was a country star because her and I are the same age so I grew up listening to her music,” she explained, noting that it had a “positive” influence on her life.
“I grew up listening to her music,” she told listeners.
The Staffords’ four daughters are big Swifties.
Kelly has passed down her love of Swift’s music to her four daughters — twins Sawyer and Chandler, 7, Hunter, 6 and Tyler, 4.
In fact, Kelly and Matthew took their daughters to see Swift in concert in New Orleans last weekend following the quarterback’s Thursday night match-up against the Minnesota Vikings.
The mother of four said she is “so thankful” for Swift for increasing female viewership and making her daughters “love football more knowing that she is adjacent to it.”
The couple surprised their daughters with a trip to see the Eras Tour in New Orleans last weekend.kbstafford89/Instagram
They flew the girls on a Swift-themed private plane.
The aircraft was adorned with balloons, kits for friendship bracelets, and additional gifts.
“I genuinely believe that my daughters are more proud of their father because he participates in a sport that Taylor Swift adores,” she remarked. Therefore, I’m grateful for everything in the end.
The Staffords decorated a private plane with friendship bracelets, glittering attire, balloons, candies, and, of course, a soundtrack of only Swift songs in order to surprise their girls with a trip to the Eras Tour last weekend. Kelly later described the event as the “experience of a lifetime,” saying, “But that concert, holy s–t.”