Football and Pop Culture
“Suddenly, football is more than a game, it’s a stage for pop culture”
Written by: Emily Nestor
11/1/23
The “Swiftie Effect” has taken the world by storm. Taylor Swift, international pop-star icon, has somehow managed to take over the NFL, leaving a wake of economic and social changes behind her.
The budding romance between Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce, and 12-time Grammy award winner, Taylor Swift, has easily become the single most highly talked about relationship of the year, and is being celebrated by “swifties” worldwide.
Who would have thought that Kelce's attendance at a concert in early July would lead to one of the most dramatic changes in demographics that the NFL has ever seen? Or that Kelce would gain over 400 thousand new social media followers seemingly overnight? Or that Swift’s presence alone at a professional football game would directly result in an increase of millions upon millions of viewers?
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On July 8, 2023, Travis Kelce was spotted at Swift’s Kansas City show of her Eras Tour, marking the first official public link between the two. Later that month, during an episode of his podcast, New Heights, Kelce recounted his failed plan of wooing Swift with a handmade friendship bracelet holding his phone number.
Kelce’s public announcement quickly led to rumors. For months, fans speculated about the beginning of a relationship, and, on September 24th, those rumors were proven correct.
Making her relationships public has never been one of Taylor’s priorities, so needless to say it was quite a surprise when she was spotted in Kelce’s suite, watching the Chiefs game alongside his mother, Donna Kelce.
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The NFL, along with Sunday Night Football, capitalized on this opportunity to reach an entirely new demographic. “Suddenly, football is more than a game; it's a stage for pop culture," recalls communication expert Molly McPherson.
Throughout the Chiefs vs. Bears game on September 24, Fox Sports panned the camera to Swift nine times, drawing over 24.3 million viewers, consequently making it the most-viewed telecast of the week.
By the next Friday, the NFL had posted about Swift 34 times across their social media accounts. Generating 170 million impressions, the watch time for their posts grew to over 23 years in less than a week. TikTok alone released 10 videos highlighting Swift’s appearance at the game, and changed their bio to read “9/24/23. Taylor was here.”
This approach has proved extremely beneficial, as a study by Averagebeing revealed that each time Swift appears at a Chiefs game, the NFL gains an average of almost 13,000 new followers on Instagram, and the Chiefs gain over 18,000.
“It's just the NFL capitalizing on a really smart business. Taylor Swift reaches so many people, why would anyone not do that?” states Sunday Night Football Graphics Coordinator, Will Shea.
All across social media, swifties have been rejoicing at the thought of their idol starting a new relationship. In fact, fans have found dozens of “clues” within songs, experiences, and random coincidences that have led the general population to believe that the two are meant to be.
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So, as predicted, anticipation rose before the next Chiefs game against the Jets on October 1. And, much to the viewers’ delight, Swift once again made an appearance at the NFL game, in another stadium she has performed in herself.
“We prepared a ton of different elements,” recalls Shea. “Whether it was an open with Carson Daly, the host of the voice, explaining football to swifties, having highlights of [Kelce and Swift] together leaving the field, or showing the outfit that Kelce had worn the week before that was somewhat swiftie related.”
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While most viewers were elated at the constant coverage of swift, a minority of football fans became enraged, accusing newscasts of taking away coverage from the actual game. The extent of this viewpoint was not limited to strictly at-home viewers either. ESPN Jets reporter Rich Cimini called the situation a 'bad look,' which was echoed by NFL X (previously Twitter) reporter Dov Kleiman who said, 'Might as well just bet KC winning the Super Bowl this year... could already be decided.'
By the end of the Jets game that Sunday, the hashtag “Enough Taylor Swift” began trending on X.
“I think when anything like this becomes a media frenzy and a media storm, there are people who will automatically be haters or disrespect whatever's going on,” Shea remarks. “Is it actually affecting the onfield product? I would say no. I think it's much more that they're just heavily scrutinized because the NFL is capitalizing on this situation.”
And, aside from a few distinctions, the business plan seems to be extremely successful as of now.
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The October 1st game easily became the second-highest selling game of the season, and viewership among females skyrocketed. It has been revealed by Variety that, compared to the first three weeks of Sunday Night Football, there has been a 53 percent increase in girls aged 12-17, and 24 percent increase in women from 18-24 years old, both of which are age ranges that the NFL does not generally dominate.
Not only has her appearance impacted the NFL as an organization, but it has also raised the popularity of Kelce himself. His jersey sales have increased almost 400%, and nearly 10% of his Instagram following is simply from his relationship with Swift, as he gains an average of over 124,000 new followers each time she makes an appearance at his games.
“It’s hilarious how much traction this has actually got,“ Kelce says on the Pat AcAFee show. “It’s like an old game in school called ‘Telephone,’ where everybody is just whispering in each other’s ear, just hearing some random stuff. No one actually knows what’s going on.”
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Since the start of October, Swift has been spotted at multiple of Kelce’s games, both by herself and with friends. Although there is no concrete way to determine how long she will continue to make appearances at these events, Shea predicts that as long as she does, broadcasts will continue to show her on camera. “If we have to show Taylor Swift to ensure an audience, we’re going to do it. Over and over and over again.”