Sportscaster Al Michaels Says He 'Wanted' to Call Taylor Swift Travis Kelce's 'Fiancée' During Recent Chiefs Game

The NFL commentator, 78, discussed the viral moment he struggled to describe the singer on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'

Al Michaels doesn’t know what to call Taylor Swift!

The NFL broadcaster, 78, discussed the viral moment he struggled to describe the singer during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

“Looking on is [Kelce’s]… well at the moment… his good buddy and girlfriend, Taylor Swift,” Michaels said during the clip, pausing several times.

Host Jimmy Kimmel played audio of the incident from Thursday night's Chiefs game, which the 33-year-old singer attended amid her romance with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, 34.

“So, is she his good buddy or his girlfriend?,” Kimmel teased Michaels. “Now you can’t be both.”

“You know you’re doing a game like that, I know the internet’s going to blow up. You know what I really wanted to say?” Michaels shared. “Fiancée.”

He added, “I didn’t because I figured Travis would beat me up at the end of the game."

Related: Taylor Swift Spotted in Travis Kelce's Suite at Chiefs Game amid Dating Rumors

Michaels also said that the NFL had to be “judicious” about showing Swift after recent fan backlash that they were spotlighting her too much during the games she has attended since being linked to Kelce.

“We knew she’d be there, so how much do you show her? I mean she’d been on twice and football fans are going, ‘Enough.’ But we were praying she’d come into the booth and sing for us and do the whole thing,” Michaels admitted to the chat show host.

“It’s hard because people tune in to watch a football game,” he continued. You know, I’m not doing Access Hollywood.” 

Ahead of Thursday's game, Michaels told Sports Illustrated that they were planning their celebrity coverage in “moderation" after Swift's previous two appearances.

"The vast majority of the audience are tuning in to watch a football game. There are people, I don’t know how many, it could be a sizable number, but it’s certainly not a majority, that if you trained the camera on [Swift] all night long, they’d be satisfied with that. This is not what we’re doing to do."

Related: Taylor Swift and Blake Lively Have Fun in the Stands During Chiefs-Jets Game

The issue was also discussed during Kelce’s podcast earlier this month, where the player admitted, "[The NFL is] overdoing it a little bit for sure. [But] I think they’re just trying to have fun with it."

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The NFL addressed the situation in a statement to PEOPLE at the beginning of October, saying, "The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news has been a pop cultural moment we’ve leaned into in real time, as it’s an intersection of sport and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport."

"The vast majority of our content has remained focused on the game, our players and variety of other initiatives, including our Toy Story Funday Football alt-cast, the international games and more," the statement concluded.

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