OPINION: The Super Bowl exposed all of Travis Kelce's icks.

Less than a week out from the Super Bowl, my social feeds are still choc-a-block with gushing posts celebrating every tiny interaction between Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. 

'Read the transcript of exactly what Travis said to Taylor after his Super Bowl win' bleats one headline. (Spoiler: it was "Come here, girl." Positively Shakespearean.)

"If it's not a love like this I don't want it," reads a caption overlaid on a video of Taylor and Travis dancing to a remix of her Love Story at a Vegas afterparty, with heart emojis and exclamations of "so happy for her" peppering the comments section.

ICYMI: Taylor Swift announced an upcoming album at the Grammy Awards 2024. Post continues after video.

"You have to admit," writes a girlfriend, sending me an Instagram mashup of post-game moments between the couple, "There's palpable love there."

At the risk of having my intestines forcibly removed and turned into friendship bracelets by angry Swifties, I just don't see it.

I mean, Kelce seems decent enough, but the vibe among most fans seems to be a collective sigh of relief that our girl has found her prince charming. Having always framed herself as the anti-cheerleader - the slightly nerdy girl who jocks always 'stash' but never publicly date - the fact that she nabbed one of the nation's most successful athletes feels to many like a win for lovesick girls on the bleachers everywhere. 

Call me cynical. Call me a love-scrooge. But I feel like I'm the only naysayer on Instagram who hasn't drunk the Kool-Aid.

Taylor Swift, a woman undoubtedly at the tippity top of a career arc few others in history have ever come close to, has always garnered much-deserved fever-pitch adulation from her fans. Lately though, the obsession with Kelce being her 'happy ending' seems to frame this new relationship as the pinnacle of the 34-year-old's success, when in fact, her relationship with the sports baller is the least interesting thing about her.

And watching Taylor's reaction to Kelce's very public partying over the past few days, I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps she agrees.

First, we saw Travis Kelce's now-viral on-field interaction with Chiefs coach Andy Reid, in which the star player screamed in his coach's face and appeared to shove him, causing the older man to lose his footing momentarily.

Many online commenters have been quick to point out this is 'red flag' behaviour, and it must be asked - if he's happy to shove a 65-year-old man in front of the cameras, what is Kelce's behaviour like in private? 

Then, in a post-match interview after the Chief's overtime victory, Kelce's exuberant rendition of 'Viva Las Vegas', as well as shouting the eponymous line from the Beastie Boys' 'Fight for your right', drew this look from Taylor:

"YOU GOTTA FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY". Travis Kelce pic.twitter.com/R3A0JBm8L2

— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 12, 2024

As some commenters pointed out, it looked very much like a woman getting 'the ick' in real-time.

And whether or not this is the case, the fact remains that framing Kelce as some sort of an ultimate prize for Taylor - who in the past 12 months alone has already had several objectively more impressive achievements including a Grammy for Album of the Year and the mantle of Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2023 - is antiquated and weird.

For some reason, we're so uncomfortable with the idea of the unattached woman that we can't be unreservedly happy for her until we know the romantic element of her life is sorted.

Take Jennifer Aniston, for example. Every time she is in the same room as Brad Pitt, speculation explodes as to whether or not the couple will reunite, with public sentiment overwhelmingly in favour of it being what Aniston - who has lived a full, rich, successful life in the intervening decades since he cheated on her - truly deserves. 

It shouldn't be a hot take to reject this notion and insist that what she deserves is so much more than this, but sadly, in 2024, it still is.

Listen to The Spill explain Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's controversial Super Bowl moment. Post continues after audio.

The obsession with Taylor's love life isn't uninvited - the woman is a genius poet superstar whose every public move is intentional, and she's built an incredible body of work from the rubble of her past relationships.

That we are invested in her love life is not a crime. But whether she and Kelce grow old together and raise a gaggle of red-jerseyed children with flat tops and beards, or go their separate ways in time, let us all remember that Taylor's happy ending is already here - and it's one she built all by herself, without the help of a football player.

Feature Image: NFL/Getty.