The Super Bowl has become an event that is shared by almost everyone across the United States. Men, women, children, dogs, cats, and birds; everyone is sitting down to watch two teams grapple for the ultimate victory. This year there were just a few more eyes than previous years.
Super Bowl LVIII has drawn a notable female audience, and it’s not just because of Taylor Swift. This has been a year of women making their involvement in the NFL known while simultaneously influencing more of their fan bases to become absorbed into the NFL. With the potential to make more money the NFL has taken women like Taylor Swift, Kristin Juszczyk, Alix Earle, and even Simone Biles and plastered them across social media platforms to drive engagement from the female audience, and it’s working.
“The league (NFL) clocked its highest regular-season female viewership since it began tracking in 2000, and the best regular season among 18-34-year-olds since 2019. From last year’s regular season to this year’s, male viewership increased by 6%, while female viewership rose by 9%,” according to Front Office Sports.
While an increase in female viewership may seem harmless, some NFL fans have taken to social media and spewed a landslide of hateful and derogatory comments towards these women about the effect they have had on the NFL.
Kristin Juszczyk is one of these women whose success and coverage threatens these social media warriors. She has been coveted for designing ‘cute’ NFL merchandise that has been worn by Taylor Swift herself.
Her husband, 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, has been overwhelmingly supportive across social media platforms, and she was just granted an official NFL merchandising license. Juszczyk has a platform of her own hosting over one million followers on Instagram and over 400 thousand on Tik Tok. Her Super Bowl XLVIII limited edition puffer vest sold for $75,000 and she will be donating all of the sales to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
With her designs trending across social media, ESPN and NFL have done a few spotlights of her accomplishments and she has done interviews with CBS and Today. She has found her niche to bring all the fashion fiends into the NFL. She has been reposted and commemorated by the NFL and ESPN, but her comment sections
will host that same array of dissatisfaction found on Tayler Swift or Brittany Mahomes related content.
While fans cannot stand her extroverted personality, Brittany Mahomes harbors a lot of hatred from fans, specifically men. Alix Earke has gained recent popularity since coming out as dating Braxton Berrios of the Miami Dolphins. Simone Biles’ name was popping up in discourse due to her husband’s viral interview for putting down her accomplishments; not to mention Taylor Swift’s reputation for ruining 0.46% of football screen time. Juszczyk, is now another woman subjected to criticism for simply succeeding in a man’s space.
All of these women have created a life or business for themselves and receive the reward of thousands to millions to billions of adoring fans who celebrate them and their accomplishments. When these women branch out from their original narrative into the NFL they garner the attention of their fanbases. With these fanbases being primarily women, the NFL has piqued the interest of hundreds of women across the country and across the world to tune into the Super Bowl.
The NFL does not care if they jump on a bandwagon; they care that merchandise is being sold and content is being consumed. Super Bowl LVIII is unique in the fact it is not just about the game on the screen, to believe the Super Bowl only represents the game on the screen is simply outdated.
For young women and young sports fans to see the rejection of their interests plastered across social media it sends the message that some people are not welcome in sports. The promotion of these women does not only bring more money to these franchises but
broadens the appeal of football to an audience that was unreachable in years past. The Super Bowl is possible because no matter if you support the Seahawks or the Broncos the game is on your screen.
With the Chiefs securing their second Super Bowl in two years, coverage of Tayler Swift and Kristen Juszczyk will not go away anytime soon, nor should it. This is an opportunity for the love of the game of football to grow, and to learn to handle a presence online with a bit more decorum.
