It’s no secret that Taylor Swift has made numerous headlines due to her dating Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce. From this, support and opposition have been brought to both the team and the games she has been seen attending.
However, something else that has come out of this popular relationship has been female viewership in the NFL, which has increased significantly since the famous singer has been associated with it.
“Before Taylor Swift was a part of the NFL, I did not care about football at all,” sophomore Emma Porogrek said. “My dad watched football, so sometimes I would watch with him, but once Taylor Swift got involved I was like ‘Oh my god, I love Taylor Swift, I can love football.’”
This year’s Super Bowl featuring the Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers broke the record for the most watched Super Bowl, at 123 million viewers. According to the New York Post, there were 58.8 million female viewers during the Super Bowl, which was a 9% increase from the previous year.
“It’s brought a lot of people closer to men in their family, whether it’s their dad or their uncle,” junior Allison Alstatt said. “I used to have zero interest in football whatsoever. I kinda understood how football works a little bit now because of that. I watched the Super Bowl this year with my dad because of that, so I think it brings a lot more girls into the football world.”
One of the commercials featured in the Super Bowl by Cetaphil demonstrates a father trying to bond with his daughter over football, to which his daughter has no interest. The father gives his daughter a jersey with the number 13 on it, the lucky number of Swift, and she comes down to watch the game with him, both of them wearing the bracelets Swift’s fans wear to concerts and the dad wearing an 89 jersey, another nod to the singer.
The 89 references the 1989 album by Swift, which was the year she was born.
“I loved it [commercial],” Pogorek said. “It really perfectly encapsulated me and my dad’s relationship. It was really real and very honest and I think they did a great job encapsulating that.”
Whether you love or hate the impact Taylor Swift has had on the NFL, female viewership being up has been a positive thing for many people, including families who can now watch the game together with female family members that may have a newfound interest in the game.
“Me and my dad bond a lot more over Taylor Swift, because he wasn’t a hater, but he wasn’t a supporter either, he was pretty indifferent,” Pogorek said. “And now he sees how much I love it, and I see how much he loves the NFL and it’s really just bonded us a lot and it’s really beneficial because I now have a much stronger relationship with my dad.”
