Travis Kelce tells brother Jason Kelce that the NFL is ‘overdoing’ Taylor Swift coverage. Does he have a point?

While it may be that the NFL’s coverage of the pop star is now bordering on excessive, there is no way to understate the instantaneous effect that she’s had on sales and ratings. Truthfully, one could argue that the league has a vested interest in seeing more of her.

Travis Kelce tells brother Jason that Taylor Swift coverage is too much

Assuming you haven’t been hiding under a rock, then you probably know that rumors about a relationship between pop star Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce, are flying around. Indeed, those rumors were given further fuel by the fact that Swift attended the Chiefs’ Week 3 win against the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium and then followed that up by going to the team’s Week 4 win against the New York Jets this past Sunday. If you caught the coverage of either of those games, you might have wondered whether you were watching a show about the pop star, rather than a game of football. This of course brings us to Kelce, who according to his comments on the “New Heights” podcast that he shares with his brother and Philadelphia Eagles player, Jason Kelce, has had enough.

During this week’s installment of the show, Jason asked Travis what he thought about the league’s continued coverage of Swift at which point the latter seemed to suggest that it was going overboard. “I think it’s fun when they show who’s at the game,” Travis said. “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.” Now, while one could say that Jason led his brother to the answer, he did actually give his own view of the situation. “I just think the NFL is not used to celebrities coming to the games,” Jason added. “Like basketball has it all figured out. They’re all courtside, they’re sitting there. They show ‘em once or twice, but then they get back to the game.”

Do the Kelce brothers have a point about the NFL & Taylor Swift?

To be honest, yes. Though it’s true that celebrities attending NFL games is nothing new - Eagles games frequently see the likes of Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout and actor Bradley Cooper - the reality is it’s not very often that we see the kind of fervor that has accompanied Swift. Needless to say, her army of fans known as Swifties are to thank for that. On the other hand, the idea that the league has taken to posting about the “Shake It Off” singer on its official social media channels, does raise an eyebrow. Yet, it’s hard to ignore the effect that Swift has had on the league since she decided to start coming to games.

The Taylor Swift effect

As crazy as it seems, the knock-on effect of whatever it is that’s going on between Swift and Kelce has been stunning on a commercial level. For starters, Kelce’s jersey sales have increased by 400%, while his Instagram account now has an additional 250,000 followers. As for the NFL, ratings for the above-mentioned win against the Bears made it the No. 1 game of the week on all networks with 24.3 million total viewers. Even more interesting is the fact that a new market segment was tapped, with female viewers aged 12-17 increasing by 8% compared with last year.

On the whole, there was a jump in female viewership across all major demographics. Heck, even Heinz got in on the act with the announcement of a new “Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch” product after Swift was spotted eating chicken nuggets with both condiments at the game. Lastly, we saw a significant spike in ticket prices for this past weekend’s game against the Jets, after it was reported that Swift would be present. Ultimately, though the Kelce brothers may have a point, and let’s also spare a thought for Swift herself, it may just be that the NFL wants the Swift/Kelce pairing to work as much as Swifties do.