I kept waiting for the internet to break on Tuesday. Pop star Taylor Swift got engaged to NFL star Travis Kelce. There hasn’t been news this big in the entertainment world since, well, Swift and Kelce started dating.
In a joint Instagram post, the happy couple posted a photo of the two in a flower garden with Kelce on one knee and Swift hugging him. Swift wrote, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” The post featured several more photos, including one with Swift sporting a huge diamond ring — which could be worth $1 million.
Shortly after, “royal wedding” was trending on X. The Instagram post had more than 18 million likes in the first four hours.
The best headline might have been from Awful Announcing: “NFL podcast host announces engagement to recent guest.” (Swift recently appeared on the “New Heights” podcast, hosted by Kelce and his brother, Jason.)
Swift and Kelce, both 35, have been dating since the summer of 2023. Many, at first, questioned whether the relationship was genuine or just a PR stunt. But it soon became clear that the two were serious, especially after Swift started appearing at Kansas City Chiefs games — helping the mega-popular National Football League become even more popular, showing the magnitude of Swift’s fame.
The NFL posted about the engagement on its official social media accounts. In its post, the NFL shared a clip of Kelce and Swift after the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII. In the clip, with confetti falling, Swift tells Kelce, “This is so crazy. I’m in shock, I can’t believe this is really happening.” Over top of that clip, the NFL wrote, “same.”
Swift is so big that USA Today hired a writer to specifically cover her full time. Bryan West, digging into Swift’s lyrics, came up with this lead for his story on the engagement: “It's a love story, and Taylor Swift said yes.” West and USA Today even put out a slickly produced video.
Even President Donald Trump, who has been critical of Swift in the past, weighed in with nice comments when asked about it while speaking to reporters during a Tuesday meeting with his cabinet. Trump said, “Well, I wish ‘em a lot of luck. I think he’s a great player. I think he's a great guy, and I think that she’s a terrific person, so I wish them a lot of luck.”
Oh, and be sure to check out this post from CBS News, which shows White House reporter Olivia Rinaldi’s reaction to the big news, as well as her reporting on CBS News’ 24/7 streaming platform.
No word yet on when the wedding will be. The NFL’s regular season starts in a week, so one would expect the two wouldn’t get married until next spring at the earliest.
A rivalry gets more intense
Barstool Sports founder and boss Dave Portnoy hasn’t even started his new gig at Fox Sports and there’s already controversy. In fact, there’s controversy about the controversy.
Try to follow all this.
Fox Sports tapped Portnoy to be a part of its “Big Noon Kickoff” college football pregame show. The season’s first broadcast will air this Saturday from Columbus, Ohio, where Ohio State hosts Texas in a big early-season game. Now, at this point, it should be noted that Portnoy is an unabashed and huge fan of Michigan, which is Ohio State’s biggest rival. Portnoy loves to poke fun at Ohio State and its coach, Ryan Day.
The way the “Big Noon Kickoff” show usually works is that the first two hours of the three-hour show are broadcast from outside the stadium. Then the final hour is broadcast inside the stadium, usually right next to the field.
On Monday night, Front Office Sports published a story saying Ohio State was going to ban Portnoy from coming into the stadium for the pregame show’s final hour. But then Tuesday morning, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said that wasn’t true. He claimed that it was Fox’s call. Bjork’s version was that only the main crew would be inside the stadium for the final hour of the pregame show and that Portnoy was not a part of Fox’s main crew.
Then Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger tweeted that a spokesperson for the Big Ten Conference (that’s the conference Ohio State is in) said it was the conference’s understanding that Portnoy would not be inside the stadium for any game this season.
Look, this whole thing smells fishy. What it feels like is that the initial Front Office Sports’ story was accurate, that Ohio State was going to keep Portnoy out of the stadium. But when there was immediate public backlash — when Ohio State was raked for being soft — Ohio State acted like it had nothing to do with it. Fox and the Big Ten then tried to provide cover for Ohio State. Again, that’s what it feels like.
Portnoy then took to social media and, in a five-minute video, blamed Ohio State for the whole mess. He said Barstool also had planned on doing its own college football show from Columbus.
In the video, Portnoy said, “We talked about being in Columbus and then we got word that Ohio State was not going to allow us to be on campus with ‘Big Noon Kickoff.’ Ross Bjork reverses it and says, ‘We didn’t ban them. That was all Fox’s decision.’ What is Fox going to say? This is a big partner with Ohio State and I’m not trying to (mess up) the relationship. I feel bad that Fox is in the middle of it and I don’t want to create any issue, but then I look in the mirror and say, ‘Dave, 20 years you’ve been doing Barstool and you’ve been telling it how it is.’”
Portnoy went on to troll Ohio State some more, then told the university to just admit what he claims it did. He said, “‘You know what, we did ban Dave, we did ban Dave because we are so hateful against Michigan.’ Take accountability for your actions. ‘Yeah, we banned him.’ Just say it. ‘Yeah, we banned him.’ Don’t point the finger.”
No matter how this all went down, Fox and Barstool and Portnoy surely are thrilled to get this much publicity heading into the first game of their partnership.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s “College GameDay” also will be in Columbus for an extra special show. Lee Corso, who has been on the show since its debut in 1987, is making his final appearance, and ESPN has lots of tributes ready to go.
But you have to figure that college football fans will be wearing out their remotes flipping between Corso’s farewell broadcast and whatever Portnoy has to say about Ohio State.
Media tidbits
- Reporting from Jerusalem for The New York Times, Aaron Boxerman with “The Deadly Risks of Reporting in Gaza.”
- The New York Times’ Megan Mineiro, a congressional reporter, and Haiyun Jiang, a photojournalist, traveled to Unalaska, Alaska, for “Public Broadcast Cuts Hit Rural Areas, Revealing a Political Shift.”
- The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr with “Jacqui Heinrich is drawing attention at Fox News.”
- NPR’s David Folkenflik with “Judge orders Kari Lake to answer questions about Voice of America under oath.”
- Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton with “Mississippi’s onerous new social platform law (and the threat of big fines) has led Bluesky to block its users in the state.”
- For the Columbia Journalism Review, Liam Scott with “What’s Left of Tennis Journalism Is Struggling to Keep Up.”
- Boston Globe managing editor Jennifer Peter has been named editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project, the nonprofit newsroom that covers criminal justice. Peter takes over for Susan Chira, who stepped down last December. Peter has been with the Globe since 2004 and oversaw the news outlet’s coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. Here’s more from The Marshall Project.
- The Hollywood Reporter’s Rick Porter with “Peter Friedlander Departing Netflix, Jinny Howe Upped to Head of U.S., Canada Scripted Series.”
- Later this week, NASCAR is launching a newsletter on Substack, becoming the first major sports league to partner with the email platform. Axios’ Sara Fischer has more.
- Louis Jacobson from Poynter’s PolitiFact reports from Reykjavik, Iceland: “Iceland has mostly avoided misinformation. That may be changing.”
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