CELEBRITY
‘Make Taylor Swift cry.’ Bills fans troll the pop star ahead of Chiefs playoff game
Buffalo Bills fans are roasting Taylor Swift ahead of the Bills-Chiefs Divisional playoff game in Buffalo on Sunday.
Buffalo Bills fans are roasting Taylor Swift ahead of the Bills-Chiefs Divisional playoff game in Buffalo on Sunday. EMILY CURIEL ecuriel@kcstar.com
You watching that big game this weekend?
Bills Mafia vs. Taylor Swift.
After the Buffalo Bills won the right to play the Kansas City Chiefs and Swift’s boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce, in an AFC Divisional playoff game on Sunday, a Bills fan named Jenna tweeted: “Everyone be nice to Taylor Swift next week.”
She might as well have told a rabid dog not to bite.
“I apologize for this but Taylor is getting the mafia treatment,” a fellow Bills fan retorted. “Strictly business, unfortunately.”
The Chiefs will travel to Orchard Park, New York, to face the Bills in the playoffs, their third postseason matchup in four seasons (but the first not in KC). This time they have one of the biggest stars in the world cheering for them, an A-lister who has brought international attention to their season.
Expectations are high that Swift, who is now a regular at Chiefs games, will be there.
And one of the NFL’s most rowdy, dedicated fan bases is ready for it.
Buffalo Bills fan Kim Sallie is ready for Taylor Swift. Facebook/Kim Sallie
A Buffalo bakery has created a Taylor Swift cookie cake for Bills fans with a message (warning?) to Swift, riffing on one of her songs in icing: “Welcome to New York. Buffalo’s been waitin’ for you.”
Game on.
Bills Mafia — a new-ish nickname that emphasizes family, not organized crime — is giving Swift the business so hard on social media this week that one of its own members issued this plaintive plea on a Bills Mafia Facebook page: “Leave Taylor alone.”
That was the same page where a top contributor named Loren posted this: “Make Taylor Swift Cry.”
A Bills fan posted this meme to a fan page. Facebook/Bills Mafia
Oh the memes, GIFs and puns.
Steroid-pumped buffalo charging at Swift, as she’s standing on a football field in front of a microphone, wearing a Chiefs jersey.
Bills fans using her own lyrics against her: “Leaning all the way into Taylor Swift this week. ‘Cause darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream.’”
Hillary Clinton even pops up in some of the jabs.
Swift hasn’t met football fans like this yet, the kind who are talking among themselves about tossing snowballs at her. (They’re joking. Right?)
The kind who get so hyped up at games they leap onto flaming folding tables.
It’s a real thing.
The Bills have their own celebrity fans, including Dean Cain, who once played Superman on TV. And actress/singer Hailee Steinfeld of “True Grit” and “Hawkeye” fame, who is dating quarterback Josh Allen.
By now, some Bills fans are tired of the media attention, including a lot of local buzz, that Swift is drawing ahead of the game.
But actually, some of them are her fans, too. Members of the self-proclaimed Swiftie Mafia, formed over the summer as Swift toured, are excited that they might see her at Highmark Stadium.
They’ve got their “Tay-gating” plans ready for pregame fun in the parking lot.
They’re also on Bills fan pages asking people not to bully Swift and getting ridiculed for being Swifties.
So many of the comments among the 86,000 members of the Official Buffalo Bills Mafia page on Facebook this week were about the singer that administrators banned the Swift talk.
This Bills Mafia Facebook page warned fans not to bring up Taylor Swift. Facebook/Official Buffalo Bills Mafia
“If you guys (saw) the posts and requests we have gotten … you’d think this was a Taylor Swift fan club group more than a Bills Mafia page,” the clearly frustrated admins wrote. “Which is why we are nipping it in the bud first thing.”
“No I do not need to post about her on this page but don’t need to disrespect her either,” one fan replied. “We are grown a@@ adults. Let’s worry about beating KC!”