If there’s anything I love to do with my free time, it’s harmless and hopeless speculation about people I’ll never meet and whether or not they had some kind of rendezvous at some point. I think that probably makes me somewhat perverse, but let’s downplay that for the time being. For example, did Kate Upton mess around with Rob Gronkowski before her current (seemingly long-running) relationship with Justin Verlander? Perhaps. Here’s the logic on that. And now we have a new entry into the field of hopeless speculation about top-tier athletes and beautiful women: Jacksonville Jaguars QB Blake Bortles. Let’s get going.
As you may or may not know, Blake Bortles was the QB of University of Central Florida up until this past year, when he was drafted third overall by the Jaguars. During the run-up to his draft, his girlfriend — Lindsey Duke — became somewhat of an Internet sensation. Bortles’ college coach, George O’Leary, said she deserved “six million Googles.” If you’re unclear who she is, well:
Well, now apparently Duke and Bortles are broken up — the reasons are a mystery, although you can guess it’s probably the same basic shit that dooms a lot of these types of relationships: he needs to focus on football, he thinks he can get more girls and he’s too young to settle down, they’re doing long-distance, whatever the case may be.
Here comes the rampant speculation part.
Blake Bortles has long been referenced in the media in relation to his love of Taylor Swift. He has her on shuffle on his phone, and apparently “Never Ever Getting Back Together” is his ringtone:
.@BBortles5's ring tone: "We are never ever getting back together" by @taylorswift13
MUST-SEE:http://t.co/r1PSfedHic pic.twitter.com/DAJLCVlvym
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) September 26, 2014
Then there’s this tweet, where one of Bortles’ friends basically asked, “What’s a guy gotta do to get a date with T-Swift,” and Bortles responded “Seriously though:”
https://twitter.com/BBortles5/status/539542537552551936
Rumor right now is that Taylor Swift is happily single, or potentially dating a singer from 1975. Still, “Blank Space…”
… references that “I can make the bad guys good for a weekend.”
Alright, so let’s think about this.
Taylor Swift seems to go in for the moodier types, generally — John Mayer, other musicians, maybe a Jake Gyllenhaal here and there. But she’s a red-blooded American girl at heart, and she just turned 25 (or is about to, I’m too lazy to look that up). Blake Bortles is a tall, good-looking athlete making about $20 million and living in a warm-weather climate. His season is about to be over (and how! The Jags are again terrible). He’ll have some time. He clearly seems interested.
Taylor Swift is a super-important person in the circles she runs in; that means she no doubt has “a team” of people who can organize things for her. If she could get in and out of Jacksonville/Orlando without the media really knowing for the aforementioned weekend, could she work with Bortles for a few days? I’m saying it’s not that far out of the realm of possibility.
Her 1989 World Tour doesn’t hit an area near Bortles until Halloween 2015 — by that time, he’ll be back in real games of Year 2 of his NFL experience — but again, you never know.
I personally probably wouldn’t make the switch from Lindsey Duke to Taylor Swift, but I mean, who the hell am I, right?
