Listen, it’s Sunday and the NFL playoffs are in full swing. Let us not waste time with the pleasantries of me trying to build up to a big reveal of what this column is about.
Besides, the headline does that. I will just get right to it.
Taylor Swift isn’t ruining the NFL or football, despite what some of you and actual Hall of Famers claim. She’s too busy to bother with that. And she may well be too busy this weekend living her best life in a luxury stadium box, cheering on boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs as they play the Buffalo Bills, to worry about whether NFL fans’ fragile emotions will survive her apparent happiness.
In fact, the truth is that she is saving the NFL from itself.
The league and the people who run it have done everything they can in recent years to ruin the sport and to take advantage of the fandom along the way.
From bush league refereeing to random rule changes that impact everything from kickoffs to the kind of socks players can wear, there is a lengthy list that points to why the game has lost much of what made it fun to watch.
This doesn’t include how fans were made to download the NBC Peacock app to watch a playoff game or that the average NFL ticket price has reached $377.
Who made the NFL playoffs?Gen Z doesn’t care. And that’s the problem.
Meanwhile, Swift is single-handedly reversing the decline in the NFL’s fun meter. Let us review.
Forbes reported in November that Swift’s attendance led to the most viewership for a Sunday night game since the Super Bowl. Since. The. Super. Bowl.
She also helped grow female viewership, ushering significant increases across several age groups. You might not like it, but that’s an important demographic the NFL has catered to for years. She made that easier.
MarketWatch reported in October that Swift helped to add $122 million to the NFL’s brand value. That means her presence alone added a spike in value to one of the most valuable entertainment entities in the world.
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That is right sports fans, your cherished and revered tradition of yelling at teams that don’t care about you over games that have zero impact on your life got a popularity lift from a female superstar. She made your sport more popular and relevant. Not the other way around.
And while you’re yelling at the screen during the Chiefs playoff game, think of this: If the NFL were to put out an honorary Taylor Swift jersey, it would outsell every other jersey in sports entertainment.
If NFL officials were smart, they’d also do friendship bracelets for the rest of us to wear while you lot are complaining about all the camera shots of Swift and her friends dancing in the stadium box.
So as you prepare for another round of playoffs and sit down to watch your teams win or lose, know that Taylor Swift will be doing her best to save your sport, despite your wishes that she would just go away.
Louie Villalobos is deputy opinion editor for USA TODAY.
