The NFL was founded in 1920, but this year it is different with a group of viewers watching not for the football game but to catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift is a world-famous singer and is currently doing a worldwide tour called The Eras Tour. During the summer of 2023, she did the American leg of the tour, which gained her even more popularity. Swift is now dating Travis Kelce, the starting tight end of the Kansas City Chiefs. The rumors of them dating started swirling in August and got even stronger when she attended her first Chiefs game in September.
There has been a lot of controversy with Swift attending the games. Avid watchers of the NFL state she is being shown too much and is ruining the sport. Sports Illustrated calculated Swift’s screen time during the AFC Championship game. She was shown a total of 7 times for 44 seconds. Over the 3-hour and 9-minute game, she was on air for 0.39% of the total airtime. Jaxson Bernecker, a freshman on campus, has watched the NFL his whole life. As an avid watcher, he had some thoughts on Swift in the NFL.
“They show her a lot,” Bernecker said. “It is bringing in more women to the sport. My basketball coaches’ wife watches just to be able to see Taylor Swift.”
CBS found that the AFC divisional playoff game was the most-watched divisional playoff in history with over 50 million viewers. There was an audience of 40% women and that number is up 9% then last year.
“It is really good advertising for the NFL, but it is getting annoying how hard they push it,” Bernecker said.
A big question that a lot of “Swifties” have is if she will be able to reach the Super Bowl game since she will be on tour in Tokyo the week leading up to the game. Her final show will be on Saturday, February 10, the night before the Super Bowl. She will have help from the changing time zones, to be able to reach Las Vegas on the morning of the Super Bowl. Meghan Cunningham, a listener of Swift, does see Taylor Swift bringing in more women to the NFL.
“She attracts more female viewership who do not care about the sport,” Cunningham said.
Super Bowl LVVII with the Kansas City Chiefs vs the San Francisco 49ers is Sunday, February 11th. Kick-off is at 5:30 pm at Allegiant Stadium Las Vegas.
