Taylor Swift’s presence at NFL games is positive for the league, players say in a poll
Taylor Swift has received a lot of comments from NFL fans — both praise and anger — since she started dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce last year and became a fixture in the stands. But fans aren’t the only ones who have an opinion about Swift’s presence at games.
The vast majority of players participate The AthleticsThe anonymous 2024 NFL player survey (72.5 percent to be exact) found that they viewed the pop star’s interest in the game (and the coverage that resulted) as positive for the league. Only 4.9 percent of players surveyed viewed it as negative, and 22.5 percent viewed it as neither negative nor positive.
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The Swift-NFL partnership was one of many topics The Athletics‘s beat writers surveyed players about to be included in this year’s poll, with 102 votes on the topic. Players were granted anonymity to speak freely about matters affecting the league.
“I think it has been positive for the league,” said one player. “I think at the end of the day it’s a business and you have to put as many eyes on it as possible. And she brings a lot of eyes with her, so you know, if that raises the salary cap, I don’t think anyone is going to be that upset about that.
Another player who voted “positive” noted that “a lot of Swifties who don’t watch football are now watching it.”
“Bringing more people to football is always good,” the player said.
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“More fans, broader horizons,” said another player in the “positive” voting camp. “She has a worldwide fan base. Non-soccer fans will become fans, or at least viewers in the United States.”
Conversely, players who emphasized the ‘negative’ elements suggested that this distracted viewers from the sport.
“I feel like she’s getting unnecessary coverage,” said one player who voted for the “negative” side. “There was the entire video of the NFL’s inaugural season on Twitter and she was featured five times and our quarterback was not in it. That’s not even right. She is not the NFL.”
THIS WEEK FOOTBALL IS BACK 🏈 🚨 pic.twitter.com/YVR8kbZnfm
—NFL (@NFL) September 2, 2024
Another player who voted ‘negative’ said this was because he felt that ‘a lot of people talk about that more than the football match that is going on.’
Others viewed Swift’s presence at the games as both positive and negative.
“It brings more attention to the game,” said one player, “but I feel like they used her face. If she’s at a game, they probably show her six or seven times. It makes people sick if they keep doing it over and over again. So I think they have to find a balance.”
“It’s positive and negative,” said another player. “The reason I say that is because it’s a tremendous impact she’s making on the younger female generation and introducing them to the sport. … The negative thing is that all real football fans are tired of seeing it. We’re glad it increases engagement, but if I’m a Chiefs fan, I try not to watch Taylor Swift every commercial break or every timeout. We know she is there.”
Like some fans, other players didn’t care, with one saying, “I’ll jam with some Taylor Swift, but I don’t care if she’s at the game or not.”
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(Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
