Trash-talking is a part of football. Some players do more of it than others, and Philadelphia Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson is one of those guys. After the Eagles won the Super Bowl on Sunday, he posted a picture on social media of Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce — who is currently dating Taylor Swift for anyone who lives under a rock — along with the caption “Should’ve Stayed w that thick s****.”
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He was allegedly comparing Kelce’s ex-girlfriend to Swift. Normally, I’d frown upon going after a player’s significant other (especially making crude comments about them), but, in this case, the player’s significant other is far more famous than he is and doesn’t hesitate to insert herself — and her relationship — into these football games, so I’ll let this one slide.
Swift’s fans — aka the Swifties — weren’t so kind though. They went after CJGJ’s parents’ livelihood. I’m not going to let that one slide.
Brian and Delatron Johnson — CJGJ’s mother and stepfather — own a restaurant in Rockledge Florida called King’s Grill. These Swifties decided that they’d retaliate against the player’s post by leaving one-star Yelp reviews, hoping to ruin the reputation of the business.
Delatron told TMZ that initially when she learned something was up, she thought someone was breaking into the restaurant, but her friends began sending her screenshots of what was going on, and they knew right away what was happening. “The Swifties have attacked,” they said to her.
🚨🚨THIS IS AWFUL🚨🚨
Swifties and #Chiefs fans have been leaving bad fake reviews to #Eagles DB CJ Gardner-Johnson’s moms restaurant in Florida.
This comes after CJGJ went after Kelce.
His mom did nothing and they are putting her livelihood at risk. Awful.
(h/t (@joe_pezz) pic.twitter.com/5cKuqE28g6
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) February 11, 2025
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Isn’t that disgusting? First of all, these people had nothing to do with their son’s social media post. Second of all, you just don’t go after someone’s business like that, especially over a stupid social media post. But you can’t tell these people anything. I’m beginning to think Taylor Swiftism is a cult.
Well, as it turns out, the joke is on them.
“The joke is really on the Swifties and everyone entertaining the reviews because Kings Grill is closed,” Delatron told TMZ. She said they closed the restaurant on January 25 because they now own a new eatery in Cocoa, Fla.: Village Bier Garten. She also said that they were “going to be fine regardless of who posts what or says anything.”
When you visit the King’s Grill Yelp page, you’re met with a warning that says, “This business is being monitored by Yelp’s Support team for content related to media reports.”
When you click on the reviews, you’re met with another warning that says “This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news. While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events.”
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And as of 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday, it looks like Yelp has removed most of the baseless reviews. For what it’s worth, the restaurant has a positive 4.6-star review without them.
