Taylor Swift has drawn tons of commentary from NFL fans — including both praise and ire — since she began dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce last year and became a fixture in the stands. But fans aren’t the only ones with opinions on Swift’s presence at games.
The vast majority of players included in The Athletic’s 2024 anonymous NFL player poll — 72.5 percent to be exact — said they viewed the pop star’s interest in the game (and the coverage that stemmed from it) as positive for the league. Only 4.9 percent of players polled viewed it as a negative, and 22.5 percent viewed it as neither negative nor positive.
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The Swift-NFL partnership was one of the many subjects The Athletic’s beat writers surveyed players about to include in this year’s poll, with 102 votes cast on the topic. Players were granted anonymity to speak freely about matters impacting the league.
“I think it’s been positive for the league,” one player said. “I think that at the end of the day, it’s a business and you need to get as many eyes on it as possible. And she brings a lot of eyes, so, you know, if that increases the salary cap, I don’t think anybody’s gonna be too mad about that one.”
Another player who voted “positive” noted that “a lot of Swifties who don’t watch football are now watching it.”
“Bringing more people to the game of football is always good,” that player said.
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“More fans, broader horizon,” said another player in the “positive” vote camp. “She has a worldwide fan base. Non-football fans will become fans or at least viewers in the United States.”
Conversely, players who highlighted the “negative” elements suggested it distracted viewers from the sport.
“I feel like she is getting unnecessary coverage,” said one player who voted for the “negative” side. “There was the whole NFL opening season video on Twitter and she was featured five times and our quarterback was featured none. That’s not even right. She is not the NFL.”
FOOTBALL IS BACK THIS WEEK 🏈 🚨 pic.twitter.com/YVR8kbZnfm
— NFL (@NFL) September 2, 2024
Another player who voted “negative” said it was because he felt like “a lot of people are talking more about that than the football game going on.”
Others viewed Swift’s presence at the games as both positive and negative.
“It’s bringing more attention to the game,” one player said, “but I feel like they’ve been using her face. If she’s at a game, they probably show her like six, seven times. People get … sick of it if they keep doing it over and over again. So I think they’ve got to find a balance.”
“It’s a positive and negative,” said another player. “The reason I say that is it’s great the impact she’s making on the younger female generation and getting them to learn about the sport. … The negative is all the true football fans who are tired of seeing it. We’re glad it’s raising engagement, but if I’m a Chiefs fan, I’m not trying to see Taylor Swift every commercial break or every timeout. We know she’s there.”
Like some fans, other players didn’t care, with one saying, “I’ll jam to some Taylor Swift, but I don’t give a s— if she’s at the game or not.”
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(Photo: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)