Will Taylor Swift Be on the Super Bowl? Stay Tuned.

On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs might be making the group’s fourth Super Bowl look within the final 5 seasons. While some N.F.L. gamers go their whole profession with out enjoying for a championship, one in all Kansas City’s newcomers had their ticket punched after solely 12 video games.

As Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic said on X, shortly after the Chiefs’ championship win: “Taylor Swift makes the Super Bowl in her first yr within the league. Elite.”

Ms. Swift, who has been courting Travis Kelce, Kansas City’s star tight finish, has modified the N.F.L. dialog all season, attracting a brand new viewers for the league and galvanizing robust feelings (each constructive and detrimental) amongst followers. Her critics in addition to her detractors could have some burning questions forward of the sport. First and foremost: Will she be there?

Has Taylor hinted at her Super Bowl plans?

Ms. Swift, as you could have heard, is nice at maintaining secrets and techniques. Her plans, past live performance dates, are hardly ever introduced prematurely. That has led some to plot their very own strategies for determining what she’s as much as. Ahead of a Kansas City recreation in October, for instance, an NBC producer stated he had a spotter aircraft looking out the realm round MetLife Stadium for police escorts in hopes of alerting the tv crew if she confirmed up (she did).

Mr. Kelce was inundated with questions on Ms. Swift final week, and whereas he stated he had heard a few of her upcoming album — spoiler: he likes it — he didn’t supply any particulars about whether or not she could be on the recreation.

That being stated, Ms. Swift has adjusted her busy schedule to permit her to attend 12 video games already this season, so lacking out on a possible Super Bowl win appears unlikely. The Associated Press reported on Saturday afternoon that her aircraft had been seen in Los Angeles.

But wasn’t she in Tokyo … final night time?

She positive was. Her Eras Tour resumed lately, and on Saturday night time in Tokyo she carried out one more marathon set of her in depth catalog of songs. With flights from Tokyo to Las Vegas typically taking 13 hours or extra, and human beings requiring sleep, some anxious she may not make the sport.

The Japanese Embassy in Washington pointed out that timing shouldn’t be an actual hurdle for Ms. Swift. First of all, a personal jet shortens the journey (and gives a spot to sleep peacefully if wanted). Second of all, the worldwide date line is her pal.

In 1873, earlier than the worldwide date line formally existed, the writer Jules Verne mapped out Ms. Swift’s time benefit in “Around the World in 80 Days.” In the ebook, the protagonist Phileas Fogg believes he has misplaced his wager solely to appreciate the space and path of his travels had saved him:

In journeying eastward he had gone in the direction of the solar, and the times due to this fact diminished for him as many instances 4 minutes as he crossed levels on this path. There are 300 and sixty levels on the circumference of the earth; and these 300 and sixty levels, multiplied by 4 minutes, provides exactly twenty-four hours — that’s, the day unconsciously gained. In different phrases, whereas Phileas Fogg, going eastward, noticed the solar move the meridian eighty instances, his buddies in London solely noticed it move the meridian seventy-nine instances. This is why they awaited him on the Reform Club on Saturday, and never Sunday, as Mr. Fogg thought.

Or, as “The West Wing” summarized extra succinctly in a scene that mentioned President Bartlett’s journey from Tokyo to Washington, D.C. (and that recently went viral on-line):

Josh: He’s gonna land in Washington an hour earlier than he took off?
Sam: Yeah.

For older generations, these scenes helped clarify the logistics of the worldwide date line. For Gen Z and youthful, their body of reference will doubtless be … when Taylor Swift flew to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl.

No one ever appeared to thoughts Jack Nicholson being a fixture at Los Angeles Lakers video games, or Spike Lee being extra related to the New York Knicks than a lot of the group’s gamers. Drake acquired solely a slap on the wrist when he started strolling onto the courtroom throughout timeouts at Toronto Raptors playoff video games. But regardless that Ms. Swift receives comparatively little airtime through the broadcasts of Kansas City’s video games, she has grow to be a goal for individuals who nonetheless assume she’s getting outsize consideration.

“The consideration is there as a result of the viewers needs to see it,” Jason Kelce, brother of Travis, stated in an interview throughout final week’s Pro Bowl festivities. “If individuals didn’t wish to see it they wouldn’t be exhibiting it.”

As Ms. Swift put it, “a number of dads, Brads, and Chads” could also be indignant, however the TV networks are thrilled. A scores evaluation by The Upshot indicated that she very nicely could also be a driving issue for the league’s elevated viewers. Coach Andy Reid of the Chiefs has repeatedly stated that he’s completely satisfied to have her round, and the N.F.L., which is having fun with an surprising enlargement of its built-in viewers, has totally embraced her affiliation with the league.

“N.F.L. followers are available in every type — even world sensations,” stated Alex Riethmiller, an N.F.L. spokesman. “We’re glad to have Taylor on board.”

During the common season, Ms. Swift attended quite a few video games in Kansas City whereas seated in a luxurious suite managed by Mr. Kelce’s shut pal and longtime teammate, Patrick Mahomes. She appeared to grow to be quick buddies with Mr. Mahomes’s spouse, Brittany, and was recurrently seen with different members of the Mahomes household.

She has additionally hung out at video games with Mr. Kelce’s dad and mom, Donna and Ed, and her personal father, mom and brother got here along with her to a recreation on Christmas. During Ms. Swift’s journey to New Jersey for a Chiefs-Jets recreation she was seated with buddies just like the actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.

At a playoff recreation in Buffalo final month, she and Kylie Kelce had been amongst these proven reacting to Jason Kelce’s shirtless bellowing and fraternizing with the group.

And on the A.F.C. championship recreation in Baltimore, she was surrounded by Mr. Kelce’s household and associates, together with Donna and Ed Kelce, Jason and Kylie Kelce and Mr. Kelce’s managers, Aaron and André Eanes. There had been additionally a number of of Ms. Swift’s buddies, just like the actress Keleigh Teller and the mannequin Cara Delevingne.

This is Taylor, absolutely there’s some numerology concerned?

Ms. Swift has stated she loves the quantity 13, and her followers can seemingly discover it in every single place. In the case of this yr’s Super Bowl, the examples are plentiful:

• Super Bowl 58 (5+8=13)

• Feb. 11, 2/11 (2+11=13)

• Kansas City is enjoying the 49ers (4+9=13)

• The 49ers had been the No. 1 seed within the N.F.C., whereas the Chiefs had been the No. 3 seed within the A.F.C. (1 and three — 13)

• This is the thirteenth N.F.L. recreation Ms. Swift has attended this season

It is unclear if it’s a good or dangerous signal that San Francisco’s beginning quarterback, Brock Purdy, wears No. 13. Time will inform.