Okay, so as we drop today's episode, we are two sleeps from Super Bowl Sunday.

And all season, we've broken down here on this program every single angle of the gridiron

leading up to Kansas City versus San Francisco.

But there has been one story that we have yet to tackle and I think you know where I'm going with this

In many ways that exception has been the biggest story that makes the rule.

So with the big game upon us now,

I turned to a special guest

to help me deconstruct how and why Taylor Swift,

Mania has conquered and divided the football world.

Louisa Thomas, New Yorker writer, let's start right here.

When's the last time you attended an NFL game?

An NFL game.

Let's see, that would have been a Baltimore Ravens game in 2016. 2016. 2016, a little bit ago.

When's the last time you attended a Taylor Swift concert? Well, I'm probably the farthest thing from a swiftie possible.

My favorite band, if you can call it that, is probably an experimental classical string quartet called

the Kronos quartet.

I'm familiar with their work.

So yeah, I know I got into this story because one Monday morning in September,

David Remnick, who is the editor of the New Yorker, sent me a story about

Taylor attending a game and against the Chicago Bears and had the text, surely you'd

love to write about this.

And when David calls I answer,

...