Football Is Back — And So Is the NFL’s Obsession With Taylor Swift

Football is back — which means so is the National Football League’s obsession with Taylor Swift. Ahead of the regular season kicking off this upcoming weekend, the NFL shared a promotional video celebrating the highs of last year’s season. The montage clip highlights touchdowns, end zone dances, and all of the moments when cameras caught Swift cheering on her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

The 30-second clip cycles through each month of the 2023-2024 season, beginning in September. For that section, the selected Swift scene was pulled from her headline-making first appearance at a Chiefs game. October and November center on the athletes — and Dolly Parton — before Swift makes another appearance in January, strutting through the halls of Arrowhead Stadium in a Chiefs jacket.

The last few seconds of the video come across as a fan edit of Swift and Kelce’s whirlwind romance. It starts with them sharing a kiss on the field before cutting to the singer gunning a beer at the 2024 Super Bowl, where Kelce and co. became champions once again.

Since the couple debuted their relationship last year, Swift has become a main character in the NFL universe. After she first started showing up at games in late September, it was reported that ratings increased across the board, particularly among women in the 12-17 and 18-49 demographics. Following her first Chiefs game, the NFL’s official e-commerce partner, Fanatics, revealed that Kelce jerseys saw a 400% spike in sales. According to USA Today, Swift scored 55 seconds of screen time during Super Bowl LVIII, while the New York Times reported an average of around 25 seconds of screen time during the other NFL games she attended.

In October, Kelce noted that he was starting to find the league’s coverage of her attendance at his games to be a little excessive. “I think it’s fun when they show who all is at the game,” Kelce said on his New Heights podcast. “I think it brings a little bit more to the atmosphere, brings a little bit more to what you’re watching. But at the same time, they’re overdoing it a little bit for sure… especially my situation. I think they’re trying to have fun with it.”

The NFL didn’t see this love story coming, but this season, they won’t be letting a single moment go to waste.

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