It’s a facet gig for them.
Picture-Illustration: Vulture; Photographs: Getty Photographs (Gareth Cattermole, Arnold Jerocki, Michael Buckner/Selection)
Cardi B is the most recent high-profile singer to realize admission to the Wives and Girlfriends (WAGs) of NFL gamers membership by advantage of her romance with now–child daddy Stefon Diggs of the New England Patriots. The merchandise went official in Could 2025 after months of hypothesis over a romance between the rapper and the broad receiver that may have gestated in the course of the former’s overly public divorce with Offset of Migos fame. (These TMI tweets … the North remembers!) Between Cardi B’s drama and all of Taylor Swift’s attractive lyrics, pop ladies are making their presence within the stadium identified this season.
The movie star WAG isn’t simply hopping on a pattern. Madison Beer lately made her first official look with boyfriend Justin Herbert, a quarterback for the Los Angeles Chargers. Half-time pop girlie (with two songs within the Spotify billions membership) and full-time actor Hailee Steinfeld married Buffalo Payments quarterback Josh Allen in Could after two years of relationship. Normani is engaged to DK Metcalf, a large receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers. (Although not an NFL WAG, Megan Thee Stallion joined the ranks of NBA Wives and Girlfriends after publicly confirming her relationship with Dallas Mavericks capturing guard Klay Thompson over the summer season.) These are severe, public relationships with a number of the most well-known figures within the sport.
Taylor Swift isn’t the primary to pioneer new heights in soccer wifedom. There have been WAGs with simply as a lot if no more fame than their gamers earlier than her. R&B diva Ciara was the poster pop-star WAG after marrying Tremendous Bowl champion Russell Wilson in 2016. However the media frenzy round Swift’s relationship with Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce has put much more consideration on the celebs on the sidelines. Their courtship — consisting of podcast confessions, assembly the dad and mom in VIP bins, and navigating paparazzi — was beamed into TV screens on numerous Thursday, Sunday, and Monday nights as she attended Kelce’s video games together with her squad in tow. Two years after the soccer star gave her a friendship bracelet together with his quantity on it, the couple are engaged, and the general public is enduring a cringe ode to Kelce’s huge redwood. To not point out he has gained three Tremendous Bowls.
Regardless of what misogynistic backlash from some soccer followers could declare, the performers haven’t but colonized our nation’s hottest sport — though they need to. Think about tuning into an NFL sport and being greeted with Cardi B’s commentary about how bizarre and suspicious a play was earlier than particular visitor Megan Thee Stallion seems for an impromptu efficiency of “WAP.” The NFL must be fortunate these girls are coming into fame-gap relationships — it’s solely making the game as an entire extra well-liked, introducing it to audiences that really couldn’t have cared much less. Up to now, there’s a correlation between feminine viewership spikes and Swift’s attendance at Chiefs video games, that means an Über-famous WAG might be driving up rankings, although the info is inconclusive to this point, per the New York Occasions. Official quantity crunchers didn’t account for Chiefs ticket gross sales and general shopper engagement (increase in merch gross sales, advertising and marketing for style manufacturers) of their findings, so Swift and her friends may be drawing consideration to the NFL in methods not but identified to man. The game has signaled their intentions to carry on to feminine viewers ensnared by the Taylor Swift Impact. And, within the case of Cardi B particularly, at the least she’ll know the place her man is throughout soccer season.