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San Francisco Families Are Split: 49ers or Taylor Swift?

Soledad McCarthy and her 9-year-old daughter, Avyana, in their San Francisco home.Credit…Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Squabbles between parents and children are as old as time, but a new divide has sprung up among some families in San Francisco — and it’s a big one.

Longtime, die-hard 49ers fans are expecting their kids to root for the team in the Super Bowl this Sunday. But some children are adamant that geography and tradition matter far less than Taylor Swift.

And as you may have heard, she’s dating Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.

The resulting family feuds are fierce, and amusing.

I was interviewing Soledad McCarthy by phone when her 9-year-old daughter, Avyana, asked to speak to me directly.

“I don’t want my parents to hear this because they might get mad,” she whispered. “But the team I’m rooting for is the one with Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.”

“The Chiefs?” I asked her. Yes, she said.

As her mom chuckled in the background, Avyana explained the rules that her parents established in the lead-up to Sunday: She can’t watch the concert movie “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” until after the Super Bowl. No Swift songs on the car radio until after the game, either.

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