With the Kansas City Chiefs winning Super Bowl LVIII, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship remains the talk of sports broadcasters, football fans, Swifties and angry teenage boys.
Since the dating rumors began in September 2023 and were eventually confirmed in December by Swift, the couple has been all over the media, according to a Jan. 29 People magazine article.
Photos of Swift proudly watching Chiefs games all across the country with the Kelce family were plastered all over the news for months, including a WCVB article from Dec. 2023.
Kelce happily attending Taylor’s numerous shows on her world famous “Era’s Tour” was documented in a similar sense, yet there was a key difference in the attitudes and descriptors between them.
Kelce was described as a good boyfriend, proudly watching his famous girlfriend perform with a smile on his face, meanwhile Taylor was described by many NFL fans to be destroying the league and making Kelce play worse, according to a Nov. 2023 People Magazine article.
At the AFC Championship game on Sunday Jan. 28 between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs, many Baltimore Ravens fans heckled Swift—who was there cheering on Kelce and the Chiefs, according to a Jan. 29 New York Post article.
These Ravens fans claimed that Swift had ruined football, according to a Jan. 29 New York Post article .
Much of the upset surrounding Swift and NFL games come from how much she is shown on television broadcasts of the games.
Swift is only shown about less than 25 seconds on average during the Chiefs games she attends, according to a Jan. 29 New York Times article.
Comparatively, the average NFL game is three hours and 15 minutes in length, according to a Feb. 2022 Mirror article.
Although math isn’t my strong suit, I know that means Taylor Swift is only shown for 0.21% of the games on average.
This easily disproves the claims of her being shown too much, although there are other statistics to disprove the claims that she has ruined the league.
Since Swift and Kelce began their relationship, female viewership of the NFL has been the highest since the league began tracking it in 2000, according to a Jan. 29th NPR podcast.
Swift has also increased the profits for the NFL exponentially, with around $330 million in brand value being added to the KC Chiefs and the NFL since her involvement, according to the same NPR podcast.
The football fans who hate on Swift for attending the games should be thankful that she is bringing in more money and fans to the sport they love so much.
Many long-term football fan fathers who have Swifty daughters describe how the superstar attending games has formed a stronger relationship between them and their daughter, according to a Jan. 23 Washington Post article.
Fathers describe how Swift has made their daughters want to come to games with them, allowing them to have father-daughter bonding time, according to the same Washington Post article.
While, yes, there are other things to criticize Taylor Swift on, such as her carbon dioxide emissions and her friendship with Jackson Mahomes—an accused sexual assaulter—she should not be told she is ruining the NFL.
Swift is increasing profits, forming bonds between family members and bringing in more fans than ever to NFL games.
