Over the past week, the internet exploded over Taylor Swift’s attendance at Travis Kelce’s games, and the NFL’s future may never be the same.
Swift attended the September 26th game in Kansas City to support her rumored boyfriend, Travis Kelce. Just by her appearance at the game, Swift is to take credit for the major increase of the viewers of the Tuesday night game. An astonishing total of 24.3 million people tuned in.
This game was a major triumph for the NFL, but it also boosted Kelce’s numbers outside of football.
Kelce gained over 20,000 X followers in 72 hours, this put him at 970,000 followers, according to Newsweek. But as of October 3rd, he sits at over one million X followers, his gain of followers from Taylor’s appearance at the game, is more than what Kelce collected in both of his Super Bowl appearances.
According to FOX Sports, The Chief’s win over the Chicago Bears was the highest-rated NFL game in women viewers between the ages of 12 to 49.
Because of the new demographic of viewers rolling in, it would be no surprise if the NFL started to gear their attention towards them. This may be aggravating to long-time fans of football, but it might be good for a change, as it will broaden the NFL fan base and overall bring in more viewership and money.
While Swift did boost viewership and ratings of the games she has attended, it made others feel that the game wasn’t being treated like a football game. Cameras were being directed towards her after every play, and Chiefs players were questioned about her presence, even though Kansas City walked away with a big early season win.
Suddenly, players were getting asked what women usually do, such as questions about one’s love life. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, was being pressed about how his teammates’ love life impacted the game.
These questions drew away from other players’ accomplishments and towards Kelce’s relationship with Swift.
Since the Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift dating rumors have surfaced, a new social experiment has begun. Women are pranking their male family members and significant others and filming their reaction to being told that, ‘Taylor Swift is putting Travis Kelce on the map.’ This led to aggravated responses from the men being filmed.
Naturally, the men are shocked by the statement, and are seen getting emotional as they are now having to defend another man’s accomplishments by suggesting a woman is responsible for their fame.
This prank is getting a lot of attention, but sadly there are many instances where a profound athlete is being credited for their fame because of the person they are dating.
In the 2016 Olympics, Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszú broke the women’s 400m world record. Dan Hicks, an NBC commentator, credited her husband as he cheered her on from the stands.
“There’s the guy responsible for turning Kaitana Hosszú, his wife, into a whole different swimmer,” Hicks said on NBC.
Kaitana Hosszú is not the only woman that has been affected by sexist comments, Taylor Swift has also been victim of similar claims.
At the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009, Kanye West interrupted Swift’s speech after accepting the Best Female Video Award for You Belong With Me. He ignored the fact she won, and gave his input on who should have won instead, Beyoncé.
West stated in his song Famous, that he made Swift famous, and many Kanye fans agree with him, when this is clearly not the case. When Kanye announced his feelings on live television, Swift had already released two albums, and had broken many billboard records for her music.
In the sports industry, keeping questions and comments about sports is something all commentators and reporters need to pay close attention to. If one thing is to come out of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s relationship, I hope that it shines light on the questions and attention that all athletes are subjected to due to their, and their teammates, relationships.
