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Taylor Swift fans side with Caitlin Clark after Angel Reese interviews Travis Kelce’s ex-girlfriend
Caitlin Clark may have just won over more Taylor Swift fans than Kamala Harris has. And Clark didn’t have to ask for any of it.
A viral resurfacing of a social media post Clark sent when she was in college has made her the latest worshipped ally of the Swift army.
The post originally came right after Swift went public with her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce. Clark welcomed Swift to the Chiefs’ fan family. Clark has said she is a lifelong Chiefs fan having grown up in suburban Iowa.
Taylor Swift fans side with Caitlin Clark after Angel Reese interviews Travis Kelce’s ex-girlfriend
Clark welcomed Swift to the Chiefs’ fan base last year
Caitlin Clark may have just won over more Taylor Swift fans than Kamala Harris has. And Clark didn’t have to ask for any of it.
A viral resurfacing of a social media post Clark made when she was in college has sent a horde of aggressive new fans her way. In fact, it has made her the latest worshipped ally of the Swift army.
Clark originally made the post right after Swift went public with her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce in September 2023. Clark welcomed Swift to the Chiefs’ fan family in the post.
“Taylor Swift welcome to the good side,” Clark wrote Sept. 24, 2023, in a post on X with the hashtag “Chiefs Kingdom.”
Clark has said she is a lifelong Chiefs fan, having grown up in suburban Iowa.
Taylor Swift stands with Donna Kelce after the AFC championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens Jan. 28, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
In the last 24 hours, multiple Taylor Swift fan pages across social media have recirculated Clark’s tweet after a controversial podcast episode hosted by Clark’s archrival, Angel Reese.
Reese hosted a woman named Kayla Nicole, who is a promotional model, media personality, on-air host and entertainment journalist popular on Instagram with more than 797,000 followers. It’s a following that has been growing rapidly since the episode was posted Thursday, after Nicole went into personal detail about her romantic relationship with Kelce in the past and its heavy aftermath.
“We’ve seen each other in public spaces before, but it’s — I think that we’re both aware of the nature of his new situation that there’s just no room really for us to communicate or acknowledge each other publicly without it being spun into something crazy,” Nicole said of Kelce and his new relationship with Swift.
Nicole also claimed she has received hate for the relationship ever since Kelce began to date Swift instead of her.
“I would be lying if I said that that level of hate and just, like, online chaos doesn’t impact me,” Nicole said. “It does, even to this day. You can go to my most recent post, and it will be people debating each other why I am worthless, and I’ll never be a talented person and I have no career.”
The comments have ignited a widely debated controversy on social media, with some defending Nicole and sympathizing with her for the alleged hate she has received. However, others, and many who openly identify as Swift fans, have been critical of Nicole and Reese for a diverse range of reasons.
Many of those same Swift fans have now declared themselves fans of Clark in response to Reese’s interview. Clark and Reese have one of the hottest rivalries in women’s sports at the moment, as their respective fan bases have been passionately opposed to each other for over a year. Now the Swift army is joining a side.
Angel Reese, right, and Caitlin Clark during the second half June 23, 2024, at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. (Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Clark and Reese have been linked to one another since they first met in the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball championship. Reese famously mocked Clark at the end of that game when her LSU Tigers defeated Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes for the title, pointing to her finger in a taunting fashion to remind her who was getting the ring.
This sparked outrage from Clark’s immense fan base, including Bartstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who called Reese “a piece of s—” in a widely circulated X post after Reese’s gesture in the championship game.
They carried their rivalry into the pros this year, seen in four heated matchups between Clark’s Indiana Fever and Reese’s Chicago Sky. The four matchups included a series of controversial flagrant fouls against Clark by Reese and other Sky players. Reese smacked Clark in the head with her arm while trying to block a shot in their first WNBA meeting on June 1. One of Reese’s teammates, Diamond DeShields, posted screenshots of hate comments she got after knocking Clark to the floor in their last meeting of the season on Aug. 30.
Clark and Reese have never acknowledged that there is a “feud” between. They’ve only made respectful comments about one another in interviews and press conferences. But he fans are a different story. The two groups have been notorious for attacking one another and the two players on social media since the NCAA championship game in 2023.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark reacts during a first-round WNBA basketball playoff game against the Connecticut Sun Sept. 25, 2024, in Uncasville, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
But now as more Swift fans turn to support Clark after Reese’s interview, they will be joining a fan base that has drawn criticism for being out of line with Swift’s values, at times. Some WNBA players, including Reese and Connecticut Sun player Alyssa Thomas, have accused the Indiana Fever fan base of racism, while Sun player DiJonai Carrington called the Fever fans “the nastiest fans in the [WNBA].”
Clark disavowed some of her own followers during the Fever’s exit interviews on Sept. 27.
“Those aren’t fans. Those are trolls,” Clark said.
Now Clark is seemingly set to get more fans that are just there to oppose Reese, courtesy of rapid Swift fandom.
“Taylor Swift welcome to the good side,” Clark wrote Sept. 24, 2023, in a post on X with the hashtag “Chiefs Kingdom.”
Clark has said she is a lifelong Chiefs fan, having grown up in suburban Iowa.
