Even the behemoth NFL can benefit from the 'Taylor Swift Effect'

If you're looking to measure Taylor Swift's effect on NFL fanhood, start with this figure: 24.7 million.

That's how many people tuned in to see Kansas City throttle the Chicago Bears last Sunday. Granted, you have to concede that some people might have watched the game to see if the Bears really are as bad as advertised. If you believe the scoreline — Kansas City 41, Chicago 10 — they're even worse. By midway through the second quarter, the game's only real appeal to hardcore fans lay in the possibility that Kansas City might go all out on Chicago's anemic defence, and try to surpass the 70 points Miami had put up earlier that afternoon.

That scenario describes me, a long-suffering Bears fan, and a significant number of other viewers on Sunday, but there certainly weren't 24.7 million of us. Many of the rest, we know now, were less concerned with action on the field than with the seating arrangement in the luxury box, where the pop music megastar Taylor Swift shared space with friends and family of Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce, whom she may or may not be dating.

So consider another figure: 17.5 million.

It's the average TV audience for NFL games through the regular season's first two weeks, and it represents a two per cent bump compared with last year, and the highest average TV viewership since 2018. If a Taylor Swift cameo, and the prospect of a romance between a sports star and a pop music icon boosted TV ratings from weak to respectable, we would all understand. But knowing Swift, a 12-time Grammy award winner, helped propel TV numbers from high to stratospheric prompts a different discussion.

NFL fans and media have reacted by going full Swiftie, which I understand — to a point.

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