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With three Super Bowl victories in the previous five years, the Kansas City Chiefs have been enjoying a moment.
However, since tight end Travis Kelce started dating Taylor Swift, the team’s name awareness has increased to an all new level. Swift increased attendance at some games, and Kelce shirt sales have surged. Additionally, as the holidays get near, two Christmas films address the Kansas City Chiefs’ prominence, which is entirely due to the pop star’s increased degree of popularity inside the team.
The November 23 premiere of Lifetime’s Christmas in the Spotlight, which stars a football player named Drew (Laith Wallschleger) and a blonde pop star named Bowyn (Jessica Lord), who have very public personas and are attempting to navigate dating with as much privacy as possible, most literally fantasizes about what Swift and Kelce’s relationship is like.
Swift’s relationship with a Kansas City Chiefs player is the reason behind Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, which comes out on November 30. However, it’s not specifically about her and Kelce. Instead, the film centers on Derrick (Tyler Hynes), the team’s director of fan engagement and a recent Kansas City transplant, as he develops feelings for Alana (Hunter King), a blonde native of Kansas City who works at a Chiefs souvenir store and whose family owns a unique hat that they believe brings good fortune to the Chiefs. Derrick is introduced to Kansas City BBQ by Donna Kelce, Kelce’s mother, who even makes a brief appearance as a waitress.
Here are several ways that Swift and Kelce served as inspiration for both movies, as well as why their relationship—and football games in general—make excellent Christmas movie subjects.
Highlights of Lifetime’s Christmas
Anyone who kept up with Swift and Kelce’s romance, which started soon after Kelce praised her on a July 2023 podcast episode, would recognize this movie. In an episode of New Heights, the podcast he co-hosts with his brother Jason Kelce, Kelce revealed that he attended one of Swift’s Eras Tour performances that month with the intention of giving her a friendship bracelet bearing his phone number. In a similar vein, Drew, who plays for the Bombers, a team similar to the Chiefs, in Christmas in the Spotlight, has a brief encounter with pop star Bowyn when he introduces her to his niece, a fellow Bowyn fan, backstage. However, they are cut off. Uncertain if he will see Bowyn again, Drew invites her to a game in a viral video. The discussion is maintained by her manager, Mira Vu (Jeannie Mai), who is an avid supporter of Drew’s squad. In reference to a phrase from Swift’s “You Belong to Me” about a lady who is lusting for a boy who has a girlfriend: “She’s cheer Captain, and I’m on the bleachers,” Bowyn phones Drew and confesses, “Growing up, I was never really the cheerleader, more a bleacher girl.”
Later, when all eyes are on Swift during her Chiefs game cheerleading, Drew is shocked and thrilled to see Bowyn on the jumbotron at his game, waving pom-poms in the air. Unlike Travis’s brother Jason, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, Drew’s brother is a star football player, just like Kelce. However, Christmas in the Spotlight shows that the brothers are on the same team.
As they snuggle up against one another while watching movies on her laptop, they have dates on Bowyn’s private plane parked in a garage, the only secluded spot they can find, to evade the media. When Drew enters the garage, Bowyn even sends him a Santa outfit to wear. He prepares supper one evening, and they engage in “sexy puzzling,” which involves assembling a jigsaw puzzle and caressing each other with the pieces. In a sense, each has located the component they were missing. Then, of course, his shirt needs to be taken off after Drew spills wine on it.
In response to accusations that Swift and Kelce’s relationship is a publicity ploy, Bowyn’s envious ex tries to ruin their new relationship by questioning her if she is dating Drew for publicity while ambushing her with a cameraman at a gala. Yes, Bowyn responds cynically, but that is taken out of context and posted online, which makes Drew angry. She writes a song and dedicates it to him in an attempt to win him back. “Drew, you were correct if you were watching the webcast. Even though I vowed not to fall in love with you, I couldn’t stop myself.I swear that as long as I have you, I won’t make a mistake again.
Screenwriter and ardent Swiftie Eirene Donohue claims she wrote the movie to honor the pop artist and does not believe the Swift-Kelce relationship is a publicity gimmick. She claims that the film aims to increase empathy for “what it must be like to try to have a new relationship, to fall in love, when the whole world is watching.” “People put celebrities on these pedestals, and I understand that, but the reality is they are just human people who are going through their lives,” she says. Drew tells a teammate in the locker room that Bowyn is “the biggest pop star in the world, she’s got like a billion dollars, she doesn’t need football fans,” which is possibly the biggest jab at those who believe the relationship is a publicity hoax. “I think it’s great that she’s bringing all of these new fans to the game,” he continues.
Christmas in the Spotlight will air on television on November 29 at 8 p.m., December 14 at 6 p.m., and December 25 at 8 p.m. It may be streamed on mylifetime.com and the Lifetime app.
Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Story of Love for the Chiefs
Derrick, who recently become the director of fan interaction for the Kansas City Chiefs, is a newcomer to the area in Holiday Touchdown. He visits a nearby Chief memorabilia store to conduct research for the department’s search for a “fan of the year.” He meets Alana there; her family owns the store and they have a knit Chiefs beanie hat that is said to bring good fortune to the Chiefs. He gets along well with them and follows along as they follow all of their Christmas customs, such as decorating the city.
They even discuss spreading flour on Alana’s face while she’s doing gingerbread art so Derrick will have to gently brush it off her cheek because Alana’s family is so eager for her and Derrick to start dating. Donna Kelce then advises, “Ladies, don’t force it,” while bringing out a dish of cookies. Trust me on this one, just let it happen. The only reference between Kelce and Swift in the movie is that statement, which might be interpreted as a reference to her son’s connection.
Julie Sherman Wolfe, the screenwriter of Holiday Touchdown, says there isn’t really any hidden message regarding Travis and Taylor aside from that.
Derrick takes Alana to the Chiefs arena, where they spend a special moment together in the stands as they fall in love. He assists with the search after Alana’s family’s lucky hat disappears during a holiday toy drive. The family, however, is not devastated. “Even if the Chiefs lose, I still win—’cause I have everything: family, friends, and love,” Alana is reassured by her Chiefs superfan grandfather, played by Ed Begley Jr., who is wearing a team shirt. What if the lost hat indicates that Alana and Derrick aren’t destined to be together? Alana then informs her grandfather that the lucky hat brought them together. According to the grandson, “the magic is not in the hat, but in what the hat represents—the conviction that we are a part of something greater than ourselves and that we will always have each other’s back.”
Ironically, shortly after the Kansas City Chiefs lost her favorite 49ers in the Super Bowl, Wolfe, a San Francisco 49ers fan, was given the task of writing a Hallmark Christmas film on the team. (Kansas City is also home to Hallmark’s headquarters.) Nevertheless, she turned her sorrow into a touching story, understanding that football unites families and friends regardless of the team. Wolfe posted a picture of a 49ers jacket that is believed to bring luck to that team, much how Alana’s family’s cap is believed to help the Chiefs win in Holiday Touchdown. Wolfe, a lifelong football enthusiast who is familiar with the game’s regulations, wanted to create a Hallmark Christmas film that football fans would like and would value the allusions to particular plays.
Hallmark’s TV channel will rerun Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story starting at 8 p.m. on November 30. On December 12, Hallmark+ will debut an expanded edit of Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.
Why football films are ideal for the holidays
Wolfe claims that the Swift-Kelce romance unavoidably resulted in the Chiefs Hallmark film, even though Holiday Touchdown may not be a straight-forward story about a pop star dating a football player. “Obviously, people’s thoughts of romance and football together were sparked by their love story.” She contends that the Chiefs’ 2023–2024 season “felt like a Hallmark Christmas movie” because of the media attention their romance received and the Swift-Kelce smooches that took place on the field.
Christmas is a time for optimism, particularly the belief that the unbelievable is achievable. A pop singer and a football star falling in love in their mid-30s, along with the Chiefs’ fairy tale of regaining their dominance after 50 years without winning a Super Bowl, makes for an ideal Christmas film. “Watching football is such a family affair for many Americans,” Wolfe continues, “and Christmas is also the season for making family memories.” especially non-football fans may learn the timeless lesson of having trust in your team, especially in the face of adversity.
According to Donohue, the “faith in magic” that permeates the season makes it the ideal time to release a film like Christmas in the Spotlight. That, in my opinion, explains why people adore Christmas films. These foods are comforting. There will be a happy ending, you know that. You want to be happy. I simply attempted to construct a film with lots of happy moments because I firmly believe in the ability of joy to inspire, uplift, and provide meaning.
“I love movies that have actual Christmas magic in them—have a little wink, a bit of the supernatural,” says Wolfe of Holiday Touchdown. The ideal time to demonstrate all of that is during Christmas, when there is more magic, faith, fate, and everything.
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