Taylor Swift Gears up for Chiefs Game After Week of Jabs from Commentators, Author

Certain sports commentators might blame singer Taylor Swift for the Kansas City Chiefs’ string of failures, but they’re clearly not the only ones ready to dish out contempt for the cultural and economic powerhouse. On Friday, famed author Anne Lamott tweeted what many see as a remark contemptuous of the popular singer, then tangled with fans angry at the comment.

The incident began with a since-deleted tweet from the 69-year-old Bird by Bird author that read, “I’m so glad this year is almost over, and we won’t have to read about Taylor Swift anymore.” Presumably a joking acknowledgment of the 34-year-old billionaire’s Time Person of the Year honor, it was swiftly interpreted by some of Lamott’s 245.7K followers as a diss of the artist.

“Hate on another successful woman that cares about other humans ??? Shame on you !! So disappointed at you Anne Lamott,” responded one. “Goodbye, think you will be more comfortable somewhere else,” Lamott said as she quote-tweeted her erstwhile fan. “You take care, now,” she wrote to another, who wrote, “Hating anothers talents while expecting praise for your own is selfish.” Countless other responses that expressed disappointment in the author went unresponded to.

As far as I know, Lamott’s not a Chiefs fan, so—unlike folks like Fox Sports host Skip Bayless and OutKick founder and COVID conspiracy theorist Clay Travis, she’s not making the easily debunked claim that Swift is somehow responsible when the team from Kansas City loses a game. Instead, she appears distressed that people are writing about the famous and influential woman as often as they do—so distressed that instead of closing a tab or scrolling past headlines that fail to interest her, she headed to X (formerly Twitter) to complain.

Soon thereafter, Lamott deleted the controversial tweet and wrote, “Very sorry for snarky Taylor Swift comment. I probably got more angry response to this than for anything I’ve tweeted in the ten years I’ve been here. Note to self: try to do better.”

I’ll leave it to Lamott to determine how hard she’s being ratioed, but if she’d responded to my request for comment, I’d ask how this compares to the reaction she received to her tweets about Caitlyn Jenner’s groundbreaking 2015 interview with Vanity Fair. “Is it okay to be a tiny tiny bit tired of Caitlyn?” Lamott asked then. “Yes, was very brave but so far he’s gone from man to mannequin, instead of man to woman.”

When her followers noted that Lamott had misgendered Jenner, she responded, “Will call him a she when the pee-pee is gone.” She apologized then (though some felt the apology was only partial), and the incident became fodder for an essay in her 2017 book, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy.

Lamott will likely need some mercy on Sunday, when Swift is again in the news. That’s because, as has been her wont during the winter break for her Eras Tour, the singer has been faithfully attending her boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s games. 

While neither Kelce nor Swift have confirmed her attendance at Sunday’s Chiefs game against the Cincinnati Bengals (and requests for comment from Vanity Fair have not received a response), it seems quite likely that she’ll be in the Arrowhead Stadium stands for kickoff at 4:25 p.m. ET. on New Year’s Eve.