Taylor Swift was at a football game. O…M…G!!! And she is going to be at another football game this week. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Look I’m no Taylor Swift hater but I think we can all admit this is a little ridiculous. I get that she is insanely popular and some people who wouldn’t watch the game will now watch the game, yada yada yada. But really that is all this is. A famous person watching a football game. Its crazy to me how much coverage this whole thing is getting. My family fantasy football chat has seen more activity than ever before over this silly thing. Some people love it. Some people hate it. I honestly just find the whole thing ridiculously funny. But guess what not only will Taylor Swift be at a football game this weekend, but also there will be 28 teams playing in 14 games on Sunday. Crazy, right? Because no one is talking about that. But if you can’t beat them, join them. So here is a 5 for Friday dedicated to Tay Tay. Perhaps, focusing on her will increase my readership the way it has increased Travis Kelce’s jersey sales. Let’s dive in.

Shake it Off: Broncos @ Bears

These two teams are really struggling this year as they are a combined 0-6. Last week they lost by a combined 111-30 and it could have been a lot worse. Sure they played two of the top teams in the league but their other losses are to the Raiders, Commanders, Packers and Bucs. Not exactly a gauntlet of teams. I am not sure what is going on with them. Maybe they have been staying out too late or have nothing in their brains. At least that’s what people say. Anyway, I think this really comes down to Justin Fields. He has certainly been missing a beat and doesn’t seem to have that same lightning on his feet. I don’t want to hate, hate, hate…but this Broncos D is terrible. If Fields can’t get it going this week at home then Bears fans hearts are going to break, break, break. On the other side, the Bears D is equally bad. Russ hasn’t exactly been cooking but he hasn’t been terrible. Certainly this should be an opportunity for their offense to get grooving…maybe even cruising. Both of these teams had high hopes that have quickly been crushed and both are coming off embarrassing losses. We know no matter what the players are going to play, play, play but ultimately whichever team can shake it off will win this game.

Broncos 27 Bears 20

Bad Blood: Ravens @ Elves

A lot of teams in the NFL have Bad Blood but none is as unique as the Ravens and the Elves. You see the Ravens are actually the Browns. The franchise moved from Cleveland to Baltimore in 1996. Not only did they move, they also won a Super Bowl 5 years later. Something they were never able to do in Cleveland. A new team became the Browns in 1999, just in time to watch the Ravens win the Super Bowl. The league and teams decided that the new Browns would get to retain the history of the previous Browns in effect making the Ravens the new team. Most of the history is awful from 1960 on so I am sure the Ravens weren’t too upset about it. I think you can see now that they got problems and I don’t they can solve ’em. This move made a really deep cut in Cleveland so now they have bad blood. The Ravens by winning two super bowls since moving while Cleveland has won one playoff game in the same time period certainly rubs it in deep. Basically Salt in the wound like Baltimore laughing right at Cleveland. But to be fair, everyone laughs at Cleveland. But these kind of wounds last and last. After all band aids don’t fix bullet holes. This game should be an interesting one. Lamar was supposed to be a passing machine with a new OC and all these new weapons. Spoiler alert…he is not. The Browns were hoping that massage boy would be back to his old form…spoiler alert he is not. At one point last week he chucked a pass backwards to avoid a sack and turned an 8 yard loss into a 20 yard loss. These teams both have defenses playing well and offenses a bit on the struggle bus. They are both rather unlikable like the rest of the AFC North and of course they don’t like each other. The Ravens squeak out a win with a long Justin Tucker kick after the Elves do something dumb. And Cleveland has to continue to live with ghosts.

Ravens 23 Elves 20

Trouble When You Walked In: Dolphins @ Bills

The Dolphins and Bills are two of the top teams in the league. The Bills after a week 1 dud, have looked every bit of a Super Bowl Contender. The Dolphins just took fans to places they have never been by putting up 70 points. Both fan bases are currently falling hard for their teams with super bowl aspirations. But deep down, the same fans know that these teams are trouble, trouble, trouble. Why, you might ask? Let’s take a trip down memory lane. I remember as a young boy loving the Dolphins. They were my second AFC team. I was 5 years old and they had a Dolphin on their helmets. Dolphins are cool to 44 year old me and super cool to 5 year old me. They also had a young quarterback destined for stardom. His name was Dan Marino. He threw for 5,000 yards before it was common to throw for 5,000 yards. In just his second year, he led his team to the Super Bowl and even though he lost, Dolphins fans knew the future was bright. The next year they were the only team to beat the Chicago Bears. A rematch was set for the Super Bowl but in a rainy day in New England, the Dolphins couldn’t overcome the weather and the Patriots for some reason. They then went 4 years without making it to the playoffs. In 92 they lost the conference championship to the Bills. They haven’t been back since and haven’t won a playoff game since 2000. It’s been a brutal team to be a fan of. What’s worse than that? I don’t know, how about losing 4 Super Bowls in a row including the first one by one point where your kicker had a shot to win it and missed wide right. Then they got blown out the next 3 years. After many years of being terrible, the Bills have brought trouble to their fans again. The Bills with the help from Josh Allen have helped their team become a contender getting so close…even 13 seconds close to that elusive super bowl but they always fall short.

But here we are again. Their fans know they are trouble when they walk in…to the stadium. One of these teams is going to lose on Sunday but both of these teams will find a way to break the hearts of their fans. As the post season nears the saddest fear will come creeping in. Their seasons will end in some heartbreaking fashion, leaving their fans to say shame on me. And after taking their fans to places they have never been, they will be left lying on the cold hard floor…starting this week for the Dolphins. Teams that score 60 or more points are 1-6 the following week. I think both teams are really good but the Buffalo D does enough to win this game assuming Josh Allen doesn’t throw the ball to the wrong team 3 or 4 teams.

Bills 30 Dolphins 24

Blank Space: Raiders @ (sort of) Chargers (I mean are the Chargers ever really the home team?)

This is the perfect song for this game and not just because there will be a lot of blank spaces known as empty seats. This song I believe is about a rocky new relationship, don’t hold me too that. These teams are both accustomed to new relationships as they recently relocated. The Chargers actually started in LA and were there for like a year before moving to San Diego where they remained until a few years ago. They then got mad because the city didn’t want to pay for a new stadium so they moved to LA to play second fiddle to the Rams and share a stadium. Literally every home game is a road game because the other team has more fans at it.

The Raiders were in Oakland and then moved to LA and then back to Oakland and now are in Vegas. They have a cool new stadium and everyone wants to go to Vegas so their stadium is also filled with other team’s fans. So the question is how long will either of these teams stay where they are? Is it gonna be forever? Or is it going to go down in flames? I guess they will tell us when it is over but one thing is for sure the high is not worth the pain with these two because there isn’t much of a high. The Raiders haven’t won anything significant in over 20 years. The Chargers haven’t won anything significant ever. If you want to see a blank space, check out the Chargers trophy room. You can write your name because there isn’t anything else there.

As far as this game goes, these might be the two worst coaches in football. Josh McDaniels has a long list of ex players that will tell you he is insane. Rumor has it at that some players are already starting to revolt. He already destroyed one football team and is quickly working on another. Brandon Staley is young and reckless but that doesn’t take the Chargers too far. He is supposed to be a defensive mastermind but their defense sucks and he makes horrible in game decisions. This is a tough game to pick. The Chargers have the far superior roster but that is the case about every week and they still find ways to lose. But the Raiders are such a hot mess that I can’t bring myself to pick them. Regardless both team’s fanbases will be drunk on jealousy when the Chiefs win the division…again.

Chargers 24 Raiders 17

Love Story: Chiefs @ Jets

Hey did you guys know that Taylor Swift is going to a football game on Sunday in New York? Well actually it is New Jersey. That is how much she likes Travis Kelce. She is willing to go to New Jersey. Did you guys know that they might be dating? It’s a whole thing. A true love story happening at the same time that the Chiefs play the New Jersey Jets. But did you know there is another love story going on. It’s my love story. I wrote a little song about it.

We were both young when I first saw him…okay well he was young and I was younger than I am now.

I close my eyes and the flashback starts.

I was sitting there on the patio of Buffalo Wild Wings in the summer air (technically it wasn’t fall yet).

He made his way through a crowd of Charger defenders and said hello to the NFL.

Little did I know that you were Mahomes, you were throwing touchdowns.

And my family said, don’t get your hopes up

and I was crying in my chair

begging you, please be true and I said…

Hey Mahomes take me somewhere like the super bowl

I’ll be waiting all there’s left to do is win

You’ll be the QB and I’ll be the obsessed fan

It’s a love story, QB, just say yes

And you know what he did. This is has been the single greatest run of any of my favorite teams. To be fair, that isn’t an incredible accomplishment. After all, my teams are the Chiefs, Royals and Mizzou. But this run has been incredible. It is what I dreamed of as a kid. It’s what I envied from other franchises. After decades of becoming a bitter fan, Patrick came and broke down all those bitter walls and gave me pure joy. If you are not a Chiefs fan, you probably think I am silly but if you are a Chiefs fan you may not admit it but deep down you feel the same way. Is Pat going to be the greatest ever? I don’t know. It will be tough to catch Tom Brady. But he is the most Jordan like figure I have ever seen in a team sport. I don’t know if Jordan is the greatest. What I do know is that everyone tuned in when he played because you never knew what he might do. The same is true of Pat. Every Sunday I get to watch the best player in the league lead my favorite team to glory. So while many of you will be tuning in to see what Taylor Swift is wearing and others will create drinking games based upon how many times Chris Collingsworth mentions her or the camera shows her, I’ll be tuning in to watch my all time favorite player do amazing things for my all time favorite team. (side note, I need to create a drinking game for Sunday night’s game).

Oh yeah and also the Chiefs are going to win. Zach Wilson is garbage and their O-Line is not good. And the Chiefs are good.

Chiefs 31 Jets 13