A Sports(ish) Super Bowl
Taylor Swift + Sports.
It was my Google search on December 12th, 2021.
What Google provided me was less than a page of answers, most I knew. One single NBA game she had attended, a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey she had worn in 2011, and rumors of a first date, the only date, with Tim Tebow, a former quarterback in the NFL.
I was a mere months into my new business venture, Sportsish, a platform for women, by women. I wanted to create a safe space to enjoy sports in a way that was catered specifically to the female gaze. A space where you would not be asked to “name ten players” in order to prove your fandom. You didn’t have to know every rule of every sport to follow what we were reporting on. And most importantly, Sportsish meant that I wasn’t just talking about sports, but rather the ish of the game. I had dubbed the ish topics such as pop culture, fashion, human interest, etc.
That day, on December 12th, the ish was Taylor Swift. The next day was her 32nd birthday, and I was determined to weave my love for her into sports, even if just for a day.
You see, I tried to lean into being, as they say, ‘For the Girls.’ I used a predominantly pink color scheme and the tagline “not your boyfriend’s sports news.“
Because let’s be honest, your boyfriend’s sports news wouldn’t be caught dead posting about Taylor Swift.
I’ve been a Swiftie for as long as I can remember. Her lyrics hold more space in my brain than anything on my growing to-do list. That was the beauty in this new platform. I could talk about Taylor as she applied to sports, and nobody would complain. In fact, it would be some of my most loved content. So I leaned in, using her song titles to report on the weekly sports news, pictures of her to make NBA memes, and album covers with athletes photoshopped.
In March 2023, I attended the first show of the eras tour at State Farm Stadium, where the Arizona Cardinals play. I arrived with my mini microphone in hand, ready to continue to merge my two favorite worlds together.
I stopped girls dressed in sparkles and tassels as they waited in the hour-long line for merch.
“Could I ask you some questions about sports?”
Most of them raised their eyebrows, seemingly asking, “Why? Why here?”
But most of them did, in fact, answer my questions. Nights spent at the Eras tour are nights of feminine camaraderie, and they were happy to support a fellow swiftie’s hustle. I created a video entitled. “Do swifties know sports?”
And I started to notice, that when it comes to swifties and sports fans, the parallels outweigh the differences.
Filled with passion and loyalty, analyzing a stat or an easter egg, amid wins and losses, triumph and defeat, they stick with their team or their Taylor.
Ask a Swiftie what her favorite song by Taylor is; it is simply like asking a sports fan who their favorite player is. There are so many they love! How could they choose? But there is one, a single one, who means the most to them. Your question will be followed by a discourse on why this is better than the rest. They’ll rock their merch, or jersey often. Of course there are ‘casual’ versions of each, but I believe most enthused swifties and most intense sports fans are actually kindred spirits.
So that’s why, on September 24th, the world exploded when Taylor walked into Arrowhead Stadium to watch a football game.
What has followed is worthy of a docuseries on Netflix. Your boyfriend’s sports news is definitely posting about Taylor Swift every day, in fact. Comment sections are filled with OG NFL fans wanting their games void of her face, shouting at us that they, “DON’T CARE ABOUT HER.” (The all caps would suggest otherwise). Travis has football highlight reels on TikTok now set to every song from Folklore. Fathers and daughters who have previously been uninterested in their dad’s favorite Sunday pastime are now bonding and exchanging friendship bracelets. I type this while wearing a sweatshirt that reads, “Go Taylor’s Boyfriend.” Their relationship has been featured in the New York Times, created political conspiracy theories, and even had the Japanese embassy submit a statement last week.
But with the anger of some fans has been, in stark contrast, a creation of new ones.
“I really never paid attention until Taylor dated Travis, and now I’m obsessed,” a woman who sat next to me on a plane said. She had just placed an order for a Cheifs jersey,
Or even a resurgence of old fans.
A woman in my DMs explained how, once upon a time, she “couldn’t get enough” of pro sports. However, when her brother, a sports fanatic, passed away, she could no longer watch due to her grief.
“Once Taylor started showing up at Chiefs games I was drawn back. Sports content for women by women has helped heal my grief and help me get back into it,” she wrote.
The response to Taylor at NFL games was as polarizing as sunshine and midnight rain, the bane of some’s existence and the highlight of others.
But nothing could have prepared the world for this, the pinnacle of the chaos, that Taylor’s Boyfriend’s team would make the Super Bowl. And in a series of events that could seemingly only happen in a Disney Channel Original Movie, Taylor finished performing in Tokyo last night to be whisked away on a jet, traveling the 5,500 miles to make it to Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII.
And there she’ll be, pulling in what is expected to be more female viewers than any Super Bowl before. For my little sports brand, it’s a dream. I’ve often said that it doesn’t matter what exactly the catalyst that brings a person into the game is; once they watch and really watch, they’ll see the absolute ball it is. Pun intended. That’s what happened with Taylor Swift.
“Football is awesome, it turns out,” she told Time. “I’ve been missing out my whole life.”
It’s been a thrill to go from the half-page google results to competing with every major outlet to cover Taylor Swift + Sports. At first, I felt territorial seeing the coverage, that was my schtick, after all! But I quickly wanted to distance myself from resembling the attitude of the Dads, Brads, and Chads who feel so offended by all the new fans in their space.
So, to the swifties new to sports,
and the sports fans new to Taylor,
and to the ones like me who have loved both before the madness,
tonight we come together to watch Super Bowl LVIII.
Are you ready for it?