Lamar Jackson, quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, did not “save” anybody after losing to the Chiefs on Sunday, Jan. 28th, 17 to10.
The meme “Save us, Lamar Jackson” originated from football fans, mostly young men, and has spread on social media platforms for the past few weeks as the highly anticipated game between the Ravens and the Chiefs approached.
Oddly enough, the significance of the phrase has to do with none other than Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift has a public relationship with Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce, causing their highly differing audiences of (generalizing here) Taylor’s young, female and queer fanbase and Kelce’s straight male fanbase to overlap.
Many football fans have been quite upset with this overlap, seeing Swift’s publicity for the Chiefs and the NFL in general as “annoying” or “too woke” in nature. In short, football fans are sick of both the heavy coverage of the Chiefs over other teams and the focus on Swift instead of the game of football in said coverage.
If the Ravens defeated the Chiefs on Sunday, thereby knocking them out of the playoffs, hypothetically the media would focus more on the game of football rather than Swift and Kelce’s relationship
Since Lamar Jackson is the Ravens quarterback, fans latched on to him as the man who could change the course of football coverage. And thus, “Save us, Lamar Jackson” was born and repeated through TikTok videos, X memes, and other social media posts.
Fans of Swift and outside spectators argue that the meme contains a level of misogyny due to its focus on Swift as being the “issue” to be solved by Jackson, rather than recognizing that Kelce is also a part of the relationship and the “issue” at hand.
Latching onto Jackson specifically has also been seen as ironic by many netizens due to the microaggressive statements made about him and his race as a quarterback. For example, Monse Bolaños of Fox Sports Radio called Jackson “not quarterbacky enough,” referring likely to the fact that most quarterbacks do not look or play like Jackson, a Black man. One TikTok user, @brelogan12, stated: “I’m rooting for the ravens because Lamar beating Patrick Mahomes and advancing to the Super Bowl would shut up the people who didn’t want him as their quarterback and the people who think people who look like Lamar should only play wide receiver or running back.”
Overall, the “Save us, Lamar Jackson” joke unveils much about the opinions of young football fans, whether they meant for their meme to be based on bigotry or not. And, as Jackson did not “save” these fans, hopefully, they get used to seeing Swift on TV because it is clear that she is not going away yet.
