The NFL approves the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce engagement.
Chicago (USA), Sep 5 (EFE)
More than 33 million likes and one million reposts on Instagram in 24 hours. A 200% increase in T-shirt sales and a 400% increase in “So High School” streams on Spotify. This is the impact of Taylor Swift’s engagement to American football star Travis Kelce. A multi-million-dollar impact for the NFL brand, which is rubbing its hands together over the most media-focused romantic relationship in the world.
Within weeks of Swift and Kelce’s relationship becoming known, the NFL already had an estimated financial benefit of more than $300 million, according to the consulting firm Apex Marketing Group. The engagement announcement heightens the already feverish attention to the start of the football season.
In the United States… and also in Brazil, where Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs face the Chargers this Friday in their official debut of the new year.
A record-breaking post
It was August 26 when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce posted an eleven-word message on Instagram: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”
The post, accompanied by photos of the couple with Kelce kneeling in a garden, received 33 million likes in the first 24 hours and one million reposts, an all-time record according to Meta.
Within hours, Kelce’s Instagram account gained 800,000 new followers, reaching 7.9 million, and Taylor Swift’s account surpassed 282 million, adding 1.2 million more users.
The impact of the news also led to a 200% increase in sales of Kelce jerseys on the online retail site Fanatics. Taylor Swift’s song “So High School,” featured in the post, also saw a 400% increase in streaming on Spotify, according to US media reports.
Among those who benefited from the pop star’s engagement to the NFL star was Ralph Lauren, as the $320 dress worn by Swift in the post sold out, in all sizes, within hours on the brand’s website.
Taylor Swift, the NFL’s best touchdown
Since Kelce and Swift appeared together at a Kansas City Chiefs-Chicago Bears game in 2023, the NFL has seen a vertical increase in its already remarkable following.
More than 200 million fans watch the NFL in the United States each year. The league also has 46 million followers in Mexico and 50 million in Brazil, and television viewership in Latin America doubled between 2021 and 2024, according to data obtained by EFE.
But Swift’s increasingly frequent presence at Arrowhead, home of the Chiefs, as well as at the 2024 and 2025 Super Bowl showcase, led more and more women and young people to follow football games, if only out of a desire to see the pop star captured by the cameras in the stadium.
The NFL featured Taylor Swift nearly twenty times during a Chiefs-Jets game shortly after the singer began her relationship with Kelce. In response to accusations from Kelce that he was “overreacting,” the league even defended itself in a statement.
“The news about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce has been a pop culture moment that we’ve embraced in real time, as it represents the intersection of sports and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around sports,” the NFL said at the time.
Taylor Swift, net worth $1.6 billion
Taylor Swift has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $1.6 billion and is considered a billionaire in 2023. Kelce, for his part, will receive a salary of $17.25 million this year.
Since 2023, the Swift-Kelce relationship fever hasn’t subsided, with peaks at the 2024 and 2025 Super Bowls, where the singer attended to watch her then-boyfriend face off against the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles.
According to estimates by consulting firm Apex Marketing Group, Swift generated a brand value of $331.5 million for the Chiefs and the NFL in 2023, calculating Swift’s impact on traditional and online media since attending that first game against the Bears.
Kelce participates in the design of the ring
One of the photos the couple posted on Instagram on the day of their engagement announcement featured Taylor Swift’s lavish ring, which Kelce himself had a hand in designing.
The ring was designed by Kelce in conjunction with Kindred Lubeck of Artifez Fine Jewelry and features a brilliant, hand-cut, cushion-shaped diamond with rounded corners and thick facets on a gold band popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, the magazine detailed.
The ring is complemented by a Cartier Santos Demoiselle watch adorned with diamonds and a gold band.
Kelce and the Chiefs will begin their season this Friday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with a game against the Chargers. EFE
