When Kristin and Kyle Juszczyk appeared at a Women of the Niners fan event late last year, she was the star of the night — not her All-Pro fullback husband.
The up-and-coming DIY fashion designer shared her insights on how to repurpose Levi’s jeans jackets and old team jerseys into chic, sports-themed outfits to display their 49ers team spirit.
“So many amazing women — and we get to inspire each other and be creative,” Kristin told the crowd.
In a few weeks, she would be hailed as one of America’s exciting new fashion talents, after she sewed a red puffer jacket that went viral when mega-star Taylor Swift wore it to the Jan. 13 Kansas City Chiefs game to cheer on her new boyfriend, Travis Kelce.
Kristin Juszczyk, wife of San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, poses on the Levi’s Stadium sideline before the January 7, 2024 game while wearing one of her custom-designed jackets that have become popular with celebrities wearing them to NFL playoff games this month. (Cam Inman/Bay Area News Group)
At the 49ers event in December, it was Kristin who was cheered on by her significant other, a role reversal of sorts in the NFL world. Kyle stood on the sidelines as his wife, dressed in a chic, business-like houndstooth jacket, did a Q&A with fans and posed for selfies.
“In December, going towards a playoff push, Kyle still put in the time to go out of his way and make sure Kristin felt his support,” said Nick Clarke, 49ers senior manager for fan engagement. “It just shows a great dynamic and a really great, healthy example of how a couple can support each other in a very public-facing way.”
Together, Kristin and Kyle Juszczyk presented the image of a modern, egalitarian NFL couple, a template that grabbed America’s attention in 2023 with the romance of Swift and tight end Kelce. As Swift embraced her boyfriend’s profession — attending 13 Chiefs games in between performing to sold-out arenas on her blockbuster Eras tour — the NFL hero showed he was perfectly fine dating a woman who was richer and more famous than he was.
The public consumed the “Traylor” coupling on multiple levels: as a once-in-a-generation celebrity story heightened by the intersection of entertainment and sports and as a rich marketing opportunity for Swift, Kelce and the NFL. Deep thinkers also pondered whether America’s fascination with the romance marked a cultural shift in people’s views on gender roles and whether this shift was seeping into the historically patriarchal NFL. However one looks at it, here’s how it continues to play out.
Travis Kelce #87 of the Kansas City Chiefs kisses Taylor Swift after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime during Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Leading up to the 2024 season, the media breathlessly reported that Kelce went to his 13th Eras concert — 13 famously being Swift’s lucky number — before heading off to training camp and sporting a jaunty new mustache. Ongoing excitement about this couple continues to extend to other players’ wives and girlfriends, from Kristin Juszczyk to former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, whose June wedding to 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey was covered by Vogue magazine. Brittany Mahomes, Swift’s new BFF, also garnered headlines when she announced she’s expecting her third child with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
George Kittle #85 of the San Francisco 49ers takes a selfie with his wife, Claire, before playing the Los Angeles Chargers in a preseason game at Levi’s Stadium on August 25, 2023 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Netflix launched “Receiver,” an eight-part series that tells the stories of five star athletes who play this position. The series notably devotes time to the personal lives of Claire Kittle, Mahogany Jones and Devanne Villareal, the partners, respectively, of George Kittle and Deebo Samuel of the 49ers and Davante Adams of the Las Vegas Raiders. Samuel and Adams also reveal a softer side of their tough-guy personas, as they’re seen sharing in parenting duties and as Adams proudly declares himself a “Girl Dad.”
In recent years, the NFL has sought to shed its reputation as a boys’-only club, centered on men’s interest in a combative sport that’s likened to war. The league also has struggled to overcome a succession of sexual assault, sexual harassment and domestic violence scandals.
Teams like the 49ers have been very public about their efforts to better mirror American society by touting initiatives to hire increasing numbers of women, especially in leadership positions. As it stands, some 41% of employees in the NFL office are women. The 49ers also are proud that Denise DeBartolo York co-owns the team and more than half its interns are women, added Christina Jefferson, the team’s senior director of inclusion and culture.
“I can say it’s been a really nice place for us to work,” Jefferson said.
Above all, the NFL likes to say that women and girls, ages 8 and up, constitute about 46% of the league’s fan base, according to a 2021 survey. Both the 49ers and the league as a whole want women to see that “it’s a great community,” Clarke said.
Certainly, the NFL benefited from last season’s “Taylor Swift effect,” a documented surge in sponsorships, ratings and female viewership across different age demographics. Specifically, Zeta Insights data showed that Swift’s appearances, including at Super Bowl LVIII, boosted NFL viewership in the ages 12-17 demographic by 8%, which is “significant,” said Angeline Close Scheinbaum, an associate professor in sports marketing at Clemson University’s Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business.
“In many ways, Taylor Swift is a role model,” Scheinbaum said. “She’s just really showing how to truly be boss.”
Ahead of Super Bowl LVIII, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell agreed that Swift’s attendance attracted young women to watch the sport. He said they wanted to know, “‘Why is (Taylor Swift) interested in this game?’ I think that’s great for us.”
With Swift’s enthusiasm for football, the 14-time Grammy winner was said to be entering her “WAG” era, with the media reviving an early 2000s term that British tabloids once cheekily applied to Victoria Beckham and other female partners of English soccer players.
By celebrating the newly anointed “WAGs” in football, the media highlighted the fashions and personal pursuits of Kristin Juszczyk, Brittany Mahomes, Claire Kittle and others, transforming them into aspirational figures. Stories about them, in turn, brought a windfall of positive press for the NFL.
Mahomes, for example, was featured in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue before the Super Bowl, with a story that described the former pro soccer player and entrepreneur as a “modern-day powerhouse.” Mahomes used the opportunity to deliver a female empowerment message: “Be confident in who you are, and be unapologetically yourself.”
Lauded for landing a licensing deal with the NFL to produce stylish, sports-themed fashions, Kristin Juszczyk was showcased in a New York Times profile in May in which she talked about turning her DIY hobby into a small but growing business. “I just have my head down, trying to get this business off the ground and get designs into fans’ hands,” she said.
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The public enthusiasm and media coverage of NFL wives and girlfriends is a major departure from seasons past. In the traditional football marriage, a woman’s career is supposed to take a back seat to her husband’s success and the needs of the team, according to the 2020 book, “The Sport Marriage,” by Steven Ortiz, an associate professor of sociology at Oregon State University. Ortiz argues that this model still prevails, largely out of necessity. Players’ “astronomical” salaries mean they have to meet high performance expectations, forcing them to adhere to intense training and travel schedules that leave their wives and girlfriends in subordinate positions.
Ayesha Curry has been credited with helping to pioneer the idea that the wife of a decorated athlete, like Golden State Warriors Steph Curry, can be a successful multi-hyphenate entrepreneur and media personality in her own right. But Curry has been the target of social media criticism claiming her pursuits can be a distraction to the game. Swift faced similar accusations for much of last season, but the grumbling seemed to end with the Super Bowl, after she jetted in from Japan to watch Kelce and the Chiefs defeat the 49ers and take home their second consecutive Lombardi trophy.
By May, the growing tide in favor of the modern NFL couple left Kelce’s teammate, kicker Harrison Butker, on the receiving end of national backlash for publicly extolling the sexist, “tradwife” view of women and marriage. During a commencement speech at a Catholic liberal arts college in Kansas, Butker lectured young female graduates to not believe the “diabolical lies told to women” about seeking personal fulfillment outside the home.
The NFL notably distanced itself from Butker’s views, saying they “are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.” Kelce also politely but publicly disagreed with his teammate, saying on his “New Heights” podcast that, “I can’t say I agree with the majority of (his speech) or just about any of it.”
A month later, Kelce created a viral moment that spurred more talk about pro athletes embracing a more enlightened view of relationships. The 6-foot-5 Kelce donned a dapper, Fred Astaire-style top hat and tails to join Swift on stage at one of her London concerts as her backup performer during a song transition, playfully kicking up his heels and pantomiming encouragement to his exhausted girlfriend to get back on her feet to sing.
ESPN analyst Pat McAfee embraced Kelce’s performance as a watershed cultural moment, explaining that he risked looking foolish but instead, created a new, enlightened version of the “football man,” a guy secure in himself that he can unabashedly support his partner and “prove to the world that chivalry is not dead.”
