Taylor Swift appears on 'New Heights'
In a big moment for Swifties and NFL fans alike, pop icon Taylor Swift made her much-anticipated debut on the Kelce brothers' podcast, "New Heights."
The pop icon revealed some details about her new album and talked some football.
Well, it was maybe a bit light on the football banter.
Taylor did share plenty of stories on the podcast hosted by her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. Swift discussed her evolution into a football fan (and what her "welcome to the NFL" moment was), her early dates with Travis Kelce and how Andy Reid vouched for his tight end to Taylor's father (the two are friends!).
➤ Jacob Camenker provided the winners (wingman Andy Reid) and losers (NFL fans hoping for football talk) of Swift's "New Heights" appearance.
➤ Nancy Armour wrote about how unbothered Taylor Swift is by the Dads, Brads and Chads.
HOT READS 🎯
The best NFL reads from USA TODAY and our Sports Network:
🏈 Of all people, Michael Penix Jr. found himself at the bottom of the pile during one of the scuffles that broke out on Wednesday when the Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans hooked up for a joint practice.
🏈 Cincinnati Bengals rookie defensive end Shemar Stewart committed a big training camp no-no on Wednesday, and it ignited a scuffle.
🏈 Cleveland Browns rookie QB Shedeur Sanders left Wednesday's practice with an oblique injury. He's listed as day-to-day.
🏈 Jarrett Bell talked to former NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, who has a new book coming out and plenty of thoughts about what lies ahead in the league's potential labor war.
🏈 After the NFL banned his preferred helmet model, Aaron Rodgers has to wear a new style … and he's not happy about it. 😡
🏈 A new Netflix documentary about Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys premieres Aug. 19. Scooby Axson got a sneak peek at the eight-part series. Hopefully it's better than the team's 2021 appearance on HBO's "Hard Knocks," when the most memorable thing that happened was a drone tour of the team facility. 📺
FANTASY ESSENTIALS ✨
This is a crucial time in terms of preparing for fantasy football domination. Stay tuned, the 4th and Monday FANTASY FOOTBALL EXTRAVAGANZA™️is coming soon!
🏉 Are you a Taylor Swift fan who also plays fantasy football? (We're sure that Venn Diagram is a circle!) Well, you're in luck because Nick Brinkerhoff has a list of Swift-inspired fantasy team names.
🏉 How does the Zero RB strategy work in fantasy football, and can it help you win a league championship?
🏉 Top 200 fantasy football player rankings
KICKOFF COUNTDOWN: 2️⃣1️⃣days ⏳
There are 21 more days until the 2025 NFL season opens with the Kickoff Game between the Dallas Cowboys and defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday, Sept. 4.
The NFL season will kick off at Lincoln Financial Field just three short weeks from Thursday. To celebrate 21 days until the new season, we're continuing with a classic countdown … the top five all-time NFL players to wear the No. 21:
Honorable mention: Charles Woodson — Wore No. 24 for most of his career, but No. 21 during his time with the Green Bay Packers, during which he earned 2009 NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors and won a Super Bowl.
ON THIS DAY IN NFL HISTORY 📜
On this day in 1959, the American Football League was founded in Chicago. Charter memberships were awarded to Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-Saint Paul and New York. The ownership group from the Twin Cities left for the NFL and that team became the Vikings.
The AFL is the last rival pro football league to successfully challenge the NFL, forcing a merger between the two leagues and spawning the unofficial national holiday that is the Super Bowl.
NFL CLASSICS 🏈: FROM THE YOUTUBE ALGORITHM 🎞️
This is where we reprise some NFL lore and recall classic, memorable moments from yesteryear.
The fine folks at the NFL Throwback channel on YouTube completed what I can only assume was an ambitious offseason project that landed on the video platform recently and has been omnipresent in my algorithm ever since. I finally hit "Play" on this video (which is more than five hours long!) this week and will be watching it piecemeal between now and the end of the 2025 NFL season (maybe?!?).
This opus of every team's starting quarterbacks — which goes back as far as 1950 for the teams that old — is a real timewaster (but you'll gain a lot of football knowledge along the way!).
If you enjoy reading 4th and Monday 📰, encourage your football fan friends to subscribe 📱. Follow the writer of this newsletter on social media @jimreineking and drop a line if you want to talk some football 🏈.
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