For the past one hundred and four years, America has been obsessed with one thing every Monday, Thursday and Sunday night: football. And it isn’t hard to understand why – it’s a simple game to understand for viewers, but it still has enough depth and strategy to keep things fresh on top of being an extremely high-paced physical competition. Athletes can show off their speed, agility, strength and overall athleticism all on one big stage.
While the sport itself feels larger than life, the largest thing about the sport is the money it brings in. In 2022, the NFL brought in roughly $18.6 billion in total revenue according to Statista. While these numbers are high, they are expected to grow even further: not due to the sport itself, not one of the players out on the field every week, not even due to one of the cheer captains. Instead, it’s due to one young lady out there on the bleachers.
Enter Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift is your all-American girl, superstar, singer, songwriter and heartbreaker. The 14-time Grammy winner is now dating America’s newest heartthrob, Travis Kelce. Kelce is a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. Her fans, known as “Swifties,” are known to be a bit excessive in their following of the singer – and now, by association, their following of Kelce. This new found adoration has gone as far as to boost Kelce’s jersey sales by 400% according to the NFL shop.
That impact hasn’t been lost on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, much to the annoyance of die-hard fans. At the games that Taylor Swift attends, the camera seems to spend half its time on her and the other half on… well, you know, the game that we’re all here for. Every Kansas City telecast feels as focused on Swift and her cadre of celebrity pals lounging the executive suites as much as it is the actual action on the field.
But, sure, it’s making money, and a success for the NFL could conceivably could be also a success for NFL fans. But will the impact that she is having on the king of American sports be worth it long term?
No. It won’t.
As stated before, the NFL is gaining tons of viewership and advertisements. The sad fact is Taylor’s love is, ironically, kinda like a game of football: it often ends with Cody Parkey hitting the goalposts twice and eliminating the Bears from the playoffs about as often as it ends with a well-earned, uncontroversial victory. And when a double-doink happens, out come the torches and pitchforks.
For you non-football people, that means a new hit single and album.
While we hope the best for Travis and Taylor, their love has a chance of falling apart –- and if it does, you can bet your bottom dollar that the “Swities” would come and try to tear down Kelce and the NFL itself. That would end in the loss of tons of revenue, viewers and even respect for the sport itself: not just from Swifties, but from all the diehards who had to suffer through the overall fruitless era of Swiftie pandering.
Many fans already feel frustrated as they feel their favorite pastime is catered toward America’s favorite girl. Kelce has two rings, is 34, and with his brother Jason retiring this year, it’s hard to say how long he might stay in the league. If he were to leave the game behind, he would also take the “Taylor Effect” with him.
At the end of the day, there are a lot of factors when it comes to professional sports, and banking this much on a singer for ratings and revenue is risky and unprofessional from a marketing and public relationship standpoint. While the NFL has hit a lucky goldmine for the time being, it’s one that isn’t rooted in the game itself and is beyond their control entirely – it’s easy come, easy go.
While currently it is without a doubt helping the Chiefs organization rake in hundreds of millions of dollars, this is Taylor Swift we’re talking about. Songs about breakups are kind of her bread and butter. Why should we expect that to change now? We don’t know the finer details about their relationship, but unless they tie the knot sooner rather than later, there’s only one thing we know for sure – the only ring that’s a priority to Kelce is another Super Bowl ring.
