The impact of Taylor Swift being on the NFL bleachers

NPR’s Ari Shapiro speaks with Nora Princiotti, a staff writer at The Ringer and a Swiftie, about Taylor Swift’s cultural impact on the NFL.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

OK. We now know who’s going to play in the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks. The San Francisco 49ers will face the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas. Now, this is not going to be a conversation about the matchup, but rather about one megastar who might be there. Taylor Swift has attended most Chiefs games this season to cheer on her boyfriend, star tight end Travis Kelce. That has had a huge impact on the NFL. The league had its highest regular season viewership among women since it began tracking in 2000. Research by the Apex Marketing Group says Swift’s association with the NFL has added the equivalent of around $330 million in brand value to the Chiefs and the league.

Nora Princiotti is a staff writer for The Ringer and self-proclaimed Swiftie. Thanks for joining us again.

NORA PRINCIOTTI: Absolutely, so glad to be here.

SHAPIRO: People have been talking about the Swift-Kelce relationship for months now, but yesterday the attention really seemed to ramp up. What did you see?

PRINCIOTTI: Well, we saw, first of all, the Chiefs win the AFC Championship Game and earn their way into the biggest sporting event of the year. And Taylor Swift still managed to be one of the biggest storylines from that game, you know, despite not being on the field, right? And whether you consider it sort of a sideshow or this thing that’s really wonderful and has brought a lot of new viewers into the sport, it’s a phenomenon that, you know, I’ve covered the NFL for a long time, and I’ve followed Taylor Swift for a long time. I never imagined they would come together in this way.

SHAPIRO: And she’s not the first celebrity to date an NFL star, so why has this become such a phenomenon?

PRINCIOTTI: Well, you know, part of it, I think, is just where she is in this real empirical phase of her…