David Letterman Defends Taylor Swift Against Her NFL Haters — and Mixes Up Travis Kelce with Kelsey Grammer

“It’s good for the footballers, it’s good for Taylor Swift and it’s something positive and happy for the world,” he said

 Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift; David Letterman

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift; David Letterman. PHOTO: PATRICK SMITH/GETTY IMAGES; MICHAEL HICKEY/GETTY IMAGES

David Letterman is Team Taylor Swift — and he wants haters to “shut up!”

Addressing NFL fans who dislike seeing Swift, 34, on their TV screens at Chiefs games, the talk show host defended the “Anti-Hero” singer.

“Now here’s Taylor Swift, who is a glowing bright light of goodness in the world and she starts dating Kelsey Grammer,” said Letterman, 76, accidentally mixing up Swift’s 34-year-old football boyfriend Travis Kelce with the Frasier actor, in footage shared via a new Instagram post.

“No, that’s not true,” interrupted producer Barbara Gaines, who can be heard offscreen in the clip that resurfaced from a video originally posted in October 2023 just after Swift and Kelce started dating.

“People go crazy [about seeing Swift],” Letterman continued. “The [Kelce] people say, ‘No, no, don’t bother us. We’re all caught up in football. We don’t want Taylor in football.’”

Letterman, who has had the “Cruel Summer” singer as an interview guest or musical guest several times on Late Show before his 2015 departure, went on to describe all the hype around Swift during football games as a good thing for everyone in a world of “nonsense and ugliness.”

“This is such a lovely thing. Shut up!” he concluded. “It’s good for the footballers. It’s good for Taylor Swift. And it’s something positive and happy for the world. … God bless, Taylor Swift and Kelsey Grammer.”

Travis Kelce; Kelsey Grammer

Travis Kelce; Kelsey Grammer.KEVIN SABITUS/GETTY IMAGES; TODD OWYOUNG/NBC VIA GETTY IMAGES

Swift previously addressed viewers who hate seeing her on NFL broadcasts during Kansas City Chiefs games, too, describing those haters as “a few dads, Brads and Chads” in her Time’s 2023 Person of the Year interview.

“There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the-camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once,” she told the publication. “I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads and Chads.”

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The 12-time Grammy winner has attended 12 Chiefs games since she and Kelce went public with their relationship in September 2023. With Swift in attendance, the Chiefs have won nine games and lost only three games.

When the Chiefs punched their ticket into the 2024 Super Bowl, after defeating the Baltimore Ravens on Jan. 28, Kelce found Swift on the field after his victory, hugged her and kissed her.

It’s unclear whether Swift will attend the Super Bowl on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas to watch the Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers.

She has an Eras Tour stop in Tokyo on Feb. 10 — causing fans to speculate if Swift can travel from Japan to Vegas in time for the game.