Now that's dedication. If you were a billionaire with the freedom and means to do anything on Christmas Day, would you spend the holiday in a drafty football stadium in Missouri? Unless Taylor Swift is reading this, everyone here just muttered “no.” But Swift said “yes,” even though certain Brads, Chads, and a Skip appear to be marshaling forces against her.

As you, of course, expected by now, Swift—who will remain on break from her Eras Tour until February—was at Arrowhead Stadium on Monday to watch her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, in their Christmas Day game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Swift arrived at the game with Santa Claus on Monday, which suggests that the jolly elf has joined Swift's so-called Squad. He's also apparently a Chiefs fan, based on his hat and scarf. As a longtime Bay Area resident, I honestly would have been surprised to learn the seeming pacifist was a member of Raider Nation, so his choice of teams at this matchup makes sense. (Raiders fans, any hate mail you send me over this passing remark will only prove my point!)

Swift's fellow members of the Chiefs Kingdom seemed excited to welcome Swift—or as Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes refers to her, “part of the team”—to Monday's game, as she took her place in her usual box. But this time, Santa was by her side for the matchup.

It was then that we learned the limits of Kris Kringle's powers. Though Swift wore a Santa hat with Kelce's numbers on the brim—and had one of the world's most magical people at her side—the Chiefs fell to the Raiders 20-14. This, though the Chiefs were widely expected to have a holiday triumph.

Of course, it's silly to blame Santa for the lump of coal the Chiefs got yesterday (especially since, as The Independent notes, that was actually Swift's “31-year-old brother, Austin, dressed as Santa for the game"). It might be just as silly to blame Swift for the Chiefs' loss, but that's what some commentators appear to be doing. 

“Feels like it's about time to call Taylor Swift a distraction,” the Fox Sports host Skip Bayless mused via X (formerly Twitter). “What do you think, Patrick? Andy? How about you, Travis?” 

Meanwhile, OutKick founder and COVID conspiracy theorist Clay Travis packaged his Chiefs commentary with an anti-vaccination message and a side dish of misogyny. Addressing his 1.1 million followers on X, he opined, “The Chiefs are not a good football team, and Travis Kelce looks like he should retire. He’s been worthless the last seven or eight weeks. The double worthless Pfizer shots may have caught up with him. Either that or Taylor Swift is the Chiefs Yoko Ono. Maybe both.” 

According to Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, however, the cause was neither a lifesaving disease preventative or a woman so powerful she makes men who use X quake in their doubtlessly tiny boots. “On offense, we struggled,” Reid said in a postgame press conference. "That's my responsibility to make sure we put the guys in the right position to make plays, and that didn't happen the way we wanted it to. I take full responsibility for the way we played offensively there."