Taylor Swift boosts Kelce’s popularity:

By: Alexa Farese

The National Football League is Taylor Swift’s biggest fan with the rumors of her alleged relationship with Travis Kelce, the tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. Swift’s new association with him and the NFL has affected both of them in many positive ways.

Swift attended the Chiefs’ recent games against the Chicago Bears, New York Jets, and Denver Broncos. They have also been seen with each other on multiple occasions outside of the games, including driving away together in a convertible after the Chief’s game against the Bear’s. Swift’s appearances at the games and with Kelce have not only drawn attention to their relationship, but also to the NFL as a whole. Her presence alone resulted in more people than usual tuning into the Chiefs’ game against the Jets on Oct. 1.

The NFL’s “Sunday Night Football” game between the Chiefs and Jets averaged 27 million viewers, making it the most-watched television program airing on a Sunday since Super Bowl LVII, according to NBC. Swift filled the TV screens with millions of viewers that night. USA Today finds that the cameras cut to Swift a total of 17 times during the game. There were also two commercial spots taken up by advertising for Swift’s new movie, “Taylor
Swift: The Eras Tour.” While some may say that the NFL didn’t need her help, data from Roku TV says otherwise. The normal viewers of the games were a very homogeneous group of people. Swift’s popularity has resulted in a new demographic of viewers watching the NFL. 73% of NFL viewers are Male, aged 50+, but the Chiefs vs. Bears game on Sept. 24 had a 63% spike in women viewers aged 18-49 from the Chiefs’ previous game.

Not only has she increased the amount of NFL viewers and demographic of people watching the games, but Swift has brought even more recognition to Kelce. He is one of the top rated NFL tight ends, but since his alleged relationship with Swift began, his popularity has skyrocketed. People who aren’t NFL fans but know of Swift are
discovering Kelce. Other NFL fans are also recognizing the football player more.

There are many examples of Kelce’s growing popularity. According to the sportswear and fan merchandise company Fanatics, Kelce’s jersey was one of the top five for the NFL on Sunday, Sept. 24. There was nearly a 400% spike in his sales throughout the Fanatics network of sites, including NFLShop.com. Kelce’s jersey sales are not the only thing that has increased. There has been a significant increase in sports betting on him since news got out about him and Swift as well. During a panel at the Global Gaming Conference in Las Vegas, Nava., FanDuel CEO Amy Howe shared that bets involving Kelce have doubled according to CBS Sports. Additionally, The Hollywood Reporter finds that Kelce gained nearly 900,000 new followers on Instagram in the week after Swift attended the Chiefs vs. Jets game.

This relationship between Swift and Kelce has benefited the NFL in many ways and has made Kelce even more famous, bringing both more fans and more recognition. While some NFL fans are not pleased with the attention Swift has brought the NFL or Kelce, or perhaps think that she hasn’t brought any at all, that clearly isn’t true.

VS.

Travis Kelce, self-made man, needs no help:

By: Fisher Giles

Globally, fans have begun to speculate that twelve-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift has made her NFL-star boy-
friend, Travis Kelce, famous. The Kelce and Swift relationship was brought into the public sphere on Sept. 24 when the Kansas City Chiefs took on the Chicago Bears in football. Shortly after, the pop culture world was taken by storm. People first realized they were dating after the game, when Swift was seen holding hands with Kelce leaving the game. Social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok were overtaken by videos of Swift watching Kelce play. While the alleged relationship between the two has posed no real issue thus far, there has been quite a bit of backlash on the publicity that Kelce has gained from his recent sightings with Swift. Many claim that Kelce was not famous before he met Swift, despite his athletic accolades and success ful career.

This can first be seen when analyzing Kelce’s achievements in the NFL. He was drafted in the third round of the 2013 draft and worked his way up to the top of the totem pole. Many consider him to be one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history. He has earned two Super Bowl rings out of his three appearances, competed on the 2010’s NFL All-Decade Team, made eight appearances in the Pro Bowl, competed four times on the All-Pro First Team, and competed three times on the All-Pro Second Team.

One might think that only die hard NFL fans would be familiar with these statistics, however, Kelce is not merely known for football. He has also made a name for himself in the reality television industry. Kelce starred on the E! Network TV show, “Catching Kelce,” in which he dated one woman from each of the 50 states. Though the show aired after a great deal of his football success, its high high ratings only bolstered Kelce’s notoriety. Additionally, Kelce is featured in the documentary, “Kelce,” about his brother Jason Kelce. This documentary is rated as the most watched documentary film ever on Amazon Prime Video in the United States.

People may come to believe that the NFL benefited from Swift’s relationship with Kelce but the NFL wasn’t a league that was falling out and been saved by Swift, no the NFL was 10 percent higher than other leagues even before Swift was broadcasted. Fifty-two percent of U.S sports fans follow the league compared to NBA at forty-two percent, the MLB at thirty one percent, MLS at thirteen percent, and the NHL at nine percent.

Kelce reaches yet another audience as a podcast host of the show, “New Heights,” that emerged in 2022. Travis and his brother Jason saw the business of podcasting as a lucrative opportunity to gain both money and fame. “New Heights” is ranked as the number 1 podcast in the United States, the number 1 sports podcast in the United States, the number 1 football podcast in the United States, and the number 4 football podcast in Great Britain, all according to the Apple Podcast charts.

While this relationship has drawn attention to both Swift and Kelce, it is most definitely not Kelce’s first experience in the spotlight. Thereby, it can be determined that Travis Kelce has been considered a quite successful and famous man long before the “Traylor Swelce” debacle.