Charles Barkley Says Chiefs Fans Who Blame Taylor Swift for Recent Struggles Are ‘Crazy’

Taylor Swift might have a song called "Don't Blame Me," but that's exactly what fans of the Kansas City Chiefs are starting to do — and Charles Barkley thinks that's "crazy."

On Thursday, when Barkley was asked by Waddle & Silvy on ESPN Chicago if he had any big celebrity crushes, he noted that it had never been at the scale of Swift, who began dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce last fall.

"She knows she's proud of the biggest in the world, right?" Barkley said. "Most famous person probably in the country or in the world right now."

Barkley said that Kelce is a friend of his, and that he wishes him "nothing but the best." But he also noted how, after initially touting her association with the league as a way to increase popularity and bring in more female fans, people in the sports world have quickly turned against Swift.

"I just think it's funny how everybody started to turn on her now, blaming her for the Chiefs not being as good. And you knew it was gonna come," Barkley said. "You could see this kind of like three months ago."

Once there was more focus on Swift in the stands, Barkley said, he knew that fans were going to turn.

"You know the internet's gonna be coming for her. I mean, you know, that's the way this thing works," he said.

Barkley is not the only person who has expressed concerns over Swift being blamed for Kansas City's losses: Former Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre said that Swift and Kelce would be blamed if the Chiefs don't win the Super Bowl this season.

But Barkley believes the criticism was invalid.

"All the wide receivers dropping passes is because Taylor Swift is in the building. I'm like, oh, man, how are crazy y'all," Barkley added.

The Chiefs take on the Dolphins Saturday night in what is expected to be a frigid and sparsely-attended wild card matchup, with the game still scheduled to kick off in Kansas City despite the Buffalo Bills-Pittsburgh Steelers game getting postponed due to similarly cold weather. The Chiefs-Dolphins game will also only be shown on NBC's streaming service Peacock — which Barkley was "disgusted" by.