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Ari Flathouse made his debut on Taylor Swift’s hit song “Tim McGraw”.
The pop icon was a constant part of now-16-year-old Ari’s childhood as she grew up in the Houston area with two older sisters who adored Swift. Arie also fell in love with Swift, dressing up like her for Halloween and listening to her albums.

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However, despite having a mother named Cara, Arie never had much interest in football, spending her weekends attending college and NFL games. This includes games played by Chiefs players since Cara, such as Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, is a Texas Tech alumnus. Despite Kara’s efforts to spark interest in her daughters, Ari never liked soccer, so Kara usually spent those weekend afternoons watching games alone.
But that changed last summer when Arie watched a clip from the “New Heights” podcast on which one of the hosts, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, described his attempts to get Swift her number via a friendship bracelet.
Does anyone know how to get the bracelet? @taylorswift13, …asking for a friend😅 @BWWings
New episodes premiering now!
Tap: https://t.co/lmQ8fLH1IO pic.twitter.com/4yYr8HSb0m
– New Heights (@newheightshow) 26 July 2023
This small exchange had a great impact on Erie.
Cara, already a dedicated listener of the podcast, got excited when her daughter started talking about Kelce’s clip. Over the following months, social media worked its magic, and by the time Swift showed up to her first Chiefs game in late September, Arie had attended.
“This is crazy,” Arie said. “These are not the principles of Swifties. This is true. So that’s when I started watching football because I thought, ‘If she comes to the games, I have to watch her.'”
Arie has attended almost every Chiefs game since then, which has included not only the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance but the entire Kelce family. She watched the Amazon Prime documentary about her brother, Eagles center Jason Kelce, became a devoted listener of the Kelce brothers’ “New Heights” podcast and even started watching Eagles games.
“Even though Taylor isn’t there, I think I enjoy (the game) a lot more,” said Ari, whose parents promised to buy him a Travis Kelce jersey soon.

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Kara smiles to hear about her daughter’s new interest in the game she created with her father. Kara doesn’t want to push too hard, but when she hears football on TV and sees Ari’s head hit the top of the stairs, she feels good. For Cara, it brings great joy that this gives her the opportunity to spend quality time with her daughter watching the game. Due to this, questions are also being raised about the game.
“It’s been really fun for me,” said Cara, who posted a viral video in the fall about her glee that Swift finally turned her daughter into a football fan. “I love it.”
The Flathouse family is no anomaly. far from it. Swift’s arrival on the soccer stage has led to countless stories of soccer-loving parents bonding with their Swiftie children. Even Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt is listening to him.
“Often my dad comes to me and says, ‘My 10 and 12-year-old daughters never used to watch football, but now they tell me anytime the Kansas City Chiefs are playing so they can watch.’ Hunt said this week in Las Vegas, where the Chiefs are preparing to face the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. “I was at a concert about a week ago and I had a woman, maybe in her 20s, come up to me, introduced herself as Swifty and told me her whole family is Dallas Cowboys fans And she’s used to not following football at all, but now she’s completely obsessed with the Kansas City Chiefs. I think there are a lot of examples like that.”
One such story comes from Cowboys fan Todd Cale, who posted a viral video of his 11-year-old daughter Brilee telling football facts while sitting on the couch.
The Black family lives near Houston. They are Cowboys season-ticket holders and all five of their daughters enjoy going to games. He knows big-name Dallas players, but never actually watched a game with his father, instead embracing the game day atmosphere or just enjoying eating hot wings rather than engaging much in actual football. Took it, which is their Sunday ritual.
But Brilly, the middle child of the family, became a Swift fan thanks to her older sisters, and she passed her love for Swift on to her younger siblings. Todd wasn’t sure how Briley first found out about Swift and Kelsey’s relationship, but a few months ago, he was watching the Sunday night game with his wife and realized that Briley was in the living room. . She started asking questions: What is security? What is a cornerback? How many points is a touchdown worth?
It didn’t take long for Todd to understand where it was coming from.
Todd said, “It definitely blew her away that something she really liked is now involved in something I really like.”
Briley has since watched more Chiefs games and has absorbed knowledge about the game.
“This is every father’s dream. …He liked football before, but I think he just liked the experience of it,” Todd said. “Now she’s learning more about the game.”

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Swift has been a storyline all season long – Kansas City has won nine of 12 games – and the Chiefs’ Super Bowl run has only taken it to a higher level.
“There’s no doubt that their fans have brought a more intense focus on the team than we have,” Hunt said. “It’s opened up a whole new demographic fan base that we didn’t really have in young women. You’ve seen it in a number of ways, particularly in our TV ratings. As Kelce says, she’s very high on Taylor Swift being a part of the team.
Hunt isn’t wrong about TV ratings. Not only did the average number of viewers watching the Chiefs’ regular season prime-time games increase this season compared to the previous two seasons (a 39.4 percent increase from last year alone), but the percentage of female viewers also increased. (by 3 percent), according to Nielsen. And this surge in viewership continued into the postseason. The Chiefs’ divisional-round win over Buffalo averaged 50.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched divisional-round or wild-card game ever. The Chiefs’ victory over the Ravens was the most-watched AFC Championship Game ever, averaging 55.47 million viewers.
Apex Marketing Group told FOS that Taylor Swift has generated the equivalent of $331.5 million in brand value for the Chiefs and the NFL.
The figures include print, digital, radio, TV, highlights and social media from the Swifts’ first game in September.https://t.co/xUzMDsqIgE pic.twitter.com/Ruj5FM7g81
– Front Office Sports (@FOS) 28 January 2024
The league’s social media team has also played a big role in bringing in new audiences. NFL SVP of social and influencer marketing Ian Trombetta said the team embraced Swift’s first game in September, and tried to be mindful of all the new people on his feed while not going overboard.
Trombetta said this theme remains consistent throughout the season, although the strategy varies depending on the platform. With something young like TikTok and Snapchat, Swifties have more reason to embrace it with their posts.
“We’re thinking about this not just in terms of what we’re posting on social media, but also how our partners are covering it,” Trombetta said. “So he could be a broadcast partner. He could be a sponsor etc. And when you take it as a whole, it can be quite attractive in terms of the amount of coverage. And, so for us, I think it was really a reminder for us to take a broader view of all coverage and understand our role in it.

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Swift’s emergence on the NFL scene has helped drive record-setting engagement, according to Trombetta, with a triple-digit increase in consumption across multiple platforms. That said, their viewership continues to decline and the male/female split is also diversifying.
Swift’s Super Bowl appearance is up in the air due to her Eras Tour stop in Tokyo, if Swift is there to watch Kelce take on the San Francisco 49ers, the league social team will devote some time to her arrival and reactions, but its With a lot happening around the Super Bowl between the football and the pageantry, it won’t just be Taylor Swift’s social feed.
“I think we’ve reached the point now that overall it’s a very celebratory thing,” Trombetta said. “And certainly positive for the league, positive for the Chiefs, positive for the Kelce family, and obviously with Travis, and I think it’s been positive for Taylor as well. So we will continue to address this in different ways, but also respect their relationship. So don’t invade any privacy and try to pick signals where certain lines are on the amount of coverage and keep the game front and center. This is really important for us.”
Still, there’s no doubt that new fans have come into the league thanks to Swift, as Flathouse and Black Families can attest.
The Flathouse family will host an “I’m in my Super Bowl era” themed party in honor of the Chiefs-Swifts crossover on Sunday.
There will be a giant friendship bracelet garland as well as appropriately themed food and drinks, including an “electric” mocktail, in honor of a term Kelce likes to use a lot.
But what about next season when Swift’s magic has worked its way? It doesn’t matter to Erie, who still plans to watch NFL games.
“I feel like I’m trapped now,” Arie said.
– athleticNate Taylor contributed to this report.
(Photo illustration: Daniel Goldfarb / athletic,
Photos: Jamie Squire, Patrick Smith and Sarah Stier/Getty Images)