Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones is fully aware — and doesn’t mind — that he and his squad were not the main focus of their game against the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Despite the Chiefs’ 41-10 blowout win, football came second to the main draw of the game — Taylor Swift cheering on Travis Kelce in his suite.
“Well, when you think about it, when we have Pat Mahomes and Travis Kelce out there scoring so many damn points, and we got Taylor Swift at the game — who gives a damn about the defense, bro?” Jones, 29, said with a laugh on a bonus episode released Friday of the Kelce brothers’ podcast, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce Presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment.
“Who’s paying attention to the defense?” he continued. “They want to see touchdowns thrown, they want to see the Swifties going crazy … I’m calling a spade a spade.”
And Jones is a certified Swiftie himself. After the game, he tweeted “Let’s goooooooooo! I’m bumping taylor swift tonight!” and confirmed to Jason and Travis on the podcast that he did, in fact, play Swift’s music.
“Hell, yeah, I put it on,” Jones said, laughing. “Straight up! That’s my dog!”
Jones’ candid take on the influx of attention on (some aspects of) the team comes just after a period of time in which the player himself was at a crossroads about his future.
The Mississippi State alum missed training camp when he and the team were at an impasse about his contract. Jones renegotiated terms that brought him back into the fold earlier this month — to the tune of a reworked $25-million one-year contract, NFL.com reported.
On the episode, he tells the Kelce brothers that he thought being in Miami over the summer instead of going to training camp was the “best thing.”
“Listen, bro – training camp? Staying in St. Joseph, Missouri? In a dorm? It’s the best thing I could have missed,” Jones said. “I was in Miami, soaking up the sun. I was tanning on the beach a couple days, bro. I think it’s the best thing for me to miss training camp.”
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Yet for Jones’ part at least, it was hard to resist the allure of Travis Kelce.
“I watched the show when you were talking about it and I was like, ‘I miss my dog! I miss my dog,’” Jones said. “It wasn’t the same, bro. I’m like, I gotta get back. Watching them play, bro. I’m like – I’m going back next week, man. Let’s work something out, let’s do it.”