The New York Times has come under fire for an article suggesting that Travis Kelce invented the “fade” haircut.
Prominent black media commentators, including retired football legend Shannon Sharpe and former ESPN personality Jemele Hill, have said that the Kansas City Chiefs tight end and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend is somehow connected to the trendy He criticized the Gray Lady for suggesting that he had launched a style.
“The New York Times kicked off Black History Month by calling Fade Travis Kelce,” Sharp said on the podcast “Nightcap,” which he co-hosts with former NFL star Chad Ochocinco.
The title of this segment of the podcast is “Is the fade just gentrified?”
“New York Times, that’s how we start Black History Month,” Sharp said, adding that she’s had a fade cut since 1986.
“I’m trying to figure out what black barbershop you go to and say, let’s get Travis Kelce,” Sharp said.
“The NYT thinks Travis Kelce invented the fade,” Hill, a former co-host of ESPN’s SportsCenter “The Six” edition who joined The Atlantic’s sports cable network, quipped Friday. .
Adding a grinning emoji, she wrote: “This is what happens when your staff has zero cultural competency.”
Another X user, Ken Burns, wrote: “More than a year before Travis Kelce was born, his college freshman ID photo from the fall of 1988 was faded. I can’t wait for the next article where Kelce talks about making Geri her curls popular.”
The headline for a Jan. 29 article by reporter Alison Krueger was, “They’ll take away Travis Kelce — the hair, that is.”
In his article, Krueger quotes barbers in Canada and the United States who have told him that dozens of regular customers have come in to get the same hairstyle as the NFL stars who will be playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“Mr. Kelce’s hairstyle, the buzz cut fade, is easy to recreate,” Krueger wrote.
She quotes Tyson Schilling, a 21-year-old college football player at Texas A&M University-Commerce, who said that after he had a shaved head, his teammates started calling him “Little Travis” and “Clavis Tellus.” He said it became.
“The girls love it, too,” Schilling told the Times. “I got a lot of compliments in bars and on social media. It was a pretty big hit.”
The Post has contacted the Times for comment.
Hill also struck out. sporting news An article about Swift doing the “swag surfing” dance while watching a Chiefs game.
Swift was seen sitting next to Kelce’s mother and doing the dance while watching the Chiefs beat the Miami Dolphins at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on January 13.
In response to the online controversy, Sporting News added an editor’s note to the article: “This article has been updated from its original version with additional context about the origins of ‘swag surfing’ in Atlanta.” Added.
“Swag Surfin” is a 2009 song by Atlanta-based rapper Fast Life Yungstaz, also known by the acronym FLY.
