It’s hard to find someone who has had an external impact on the NFL as much as we’ve seen from music legend Taylor Swift over the past couple weeks.
Swift joined Travis Kelce’s mom in a suite during the Kansas City Chiefs’ home game against the Chicago Bears this past Sunday. Swift and Kelce are officially an item, as the youngsters like to call it these days. It was a pretty crazy scene inside Arrowhead stadium.
Since then, Swift has taken the NFL by force. I guess, one could say that it’s been a love story. We can now add Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to the mix. The 80-year-old longtime owner was asked about Swift’s recent impact on the NFL brand. His answer was wide ranging and didn’t leave any blank space. He’s a fanboy.
“It is hard to move that needle dramatically on a great feeling a great attraction in the NFL. We get a lot of eye balls. She blew it off the charts. It is amazing. It makes you smile. But it just shows the depth of her following, especially with her core constituency.
We all, I think, felt the same way when she’s sitting up there with (Travis Kelce’s) mom and she’s going nuts when he’s playing and those hearts are popping out everywhere. How do you not get that? That’s called images right there.”
Jerry Jones on Taylor Swift’s impact on the NFL
It’s right there in the numbers, too.
The NFL and its fans believe they belong with Taylor Swift
The Swiftie puns aside, her impact has been real since the relationship with Kelce started. The Chiefs’ tight end saw his jersey sales increase 400% on Fanatics and the NFL Shop.
Kansas City’s blowout 41-10 win over the Chicago in Week 3 was also the most-watched NFL game, besting Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football. Fox averaged 24.3 million viewers for the lopsided regional game.
As for Jones, he’s not the only — shall we say — distinguished gentleman around the NFL to show interest in the icon.
“That was pretty impressive. “She’s tough, man. She stood out there and played right through,” New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said recently about Swift’s spring performance at Gillette Stadium.
Perhaps, the NFL just needs to calm down. Then again, they might be ready for it. That is to say, embracing someone the league never in its wildest dreams would’ve thought could impact its brand so much.