Joe alwyn

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end was already scoring big with sponsors. Then he went on a date in Arrowhead Stadium. Now advertisers—and millions of Swifties—see him as quite the catch.

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W hen Taylor Swift sang, “Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone,” no one expected her to be among the 76,000 faithful at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. But there was the 33-year-old pop queen on September 24, next to the mother of two-time Super Bowl champion, tight end Travis Kelce, cheering her heart out in a red and white Chiefs windbreaker. The unexpected appearance of Swift set off the pop cultural seismographs, introducing the 33-year-old Kelce to millions of Swifties around the world. The NFL even changed its bio on social platform X to say “NFL (Taylor’s Version)” in honor of their Arrowhead assignation.

The very public rendezvous was something of a dare issued by Kelce to Swift, with whom he’s been rumored to be dating since the summer. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show last week, Kelce admitted that he invited Swift to the game . “I told her, ‘I’ve seen you rock the stage in Arrowhead, and you might have to come see me rock the stage at Arrowhead,” he said. “We’ll see what happens in the near future.” He addressed “his personal life that is not so personal,” on his podcast Wednesday, admitting that he “sure as hell enjoyed this weekend.”

Regardless of whether the two walk down the aisle or he becomes worthy of another song in her considerable breakup catalog, the so-called Swift Effect is already paying off for Kelce. His social media following exploded over the weekend, amassing around 500,000 new followers—and it didn’t have much to do with his Chiefs’ trouncing of the Chicago Bears. More remarkable, Kelce’s merchandise sales spiked roughly 400% spike in sales on Fanatics’ network of sites, including NFLShop.com, making him one of the five top-selling players.

The spotlight is now shining on Kelce more than ever and it was fairly bright already. Kelce has appeared in commercials for State Farm, DirecTV, Bud Light, Pfizer and Campbell’s Soup, the latter of which have featured his mother and brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. He also hosted Saturday Night Live earlier this year, following in the footsteps of other football stars J.J. Watt and Peyton Manning, and hosts a weekly podcast with his brother. (In 2016, Kelce also starred in his own E! Entertainment dating reality show called Catching Kelce that Swift may want to consult for a dating game plan.)

But as successful as Kelce is— Forbes estimates he was earning $3 million annually off the field before the Swift bump, on top of roughly $12 million on the field this season—there is still plenty of room for Kelce’s income to get a friendly Taylor bounce. After all, Swift made $92 million last year —and that was before launching her record-breaking Eras Tour. “She’s her own economy now,” says Vince Thompson, founder and CEO of brand marketing agency Melt. “She’s her own GDP.”

And being her chief playmaker comes with amplified success—just ask exes Calvin Harris and Joe Alwyn . “I think people are absolutely looking at Travis Kelce in a different light,” says Eunice Shin, a partner at brand consultancy Prophet. “His overall brand image has become a lot brighter just given the fact that you now have all of these Taylor Swift fans, millions who now know who he is, who may not have known him before.”

Kelce is hardly the first NFL star to turbocharge his fame with a celebrity partner. Future NFL Hall of Famer Tom Brady was married to Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen for 13 years, while Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson wed Grammy Award winner Ciara in 2016. From Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe to David and Victoria Beckham, the combined wattage of two stars from sports and entertainment has always been good for business.

Brands are willing to pay a premium to work with ambassadors who have a famous family member or significant other, explains Shin. “I think the power of the Kardashians is that it’s not just one, but it’s a family, and there’s multiple stories to be told around them and their brand relevance from that standpoint,” she says, adding that in the case of the world’s top athletes, “it makes these people a little bit more interesting and more relevant from beyond what they do on their court or their field or wherever they’re participating.”

The added exposure could also open new categories for Kelce according to Lisa Delpy Neirotti, associate professor of sports management at George Washington University, who can imagine brands such as Apple Music, an existing NFL sponsor, or, say, 1-800 Flowers, taking a new look at the Chiefs star.

When you magnify the NFL star’s fame by Swift’s enormous (and enormously passionate) fan base—she has 273 million Instagram followers, as well as 94 million more on X—the possibilities for greater exposure are astronomical. Every aspect of her luxury suite romance with Kelce—from the unreleased New Era Chiefs windbreaker to the New Balance 550 sneakers she wore—has been under the pop culture microscope since Sunday.

Thompson adds that brands may fear they missed out on a golden opportunity with Kelce. One of his clients, for example, was negotiating with Team Kelce on a deal in the lead-up to last weekend. But after Sunday’s game, he says, the price doubled. The client ended up passing.

For now, Kelce’s existing sponsors “look like geniuses,” reaping the benefits of the added interest. Meanwhile, he had already signed with Creative Artists Agency for entertainment endeavors in May. A&A Management handles his marketing opportunities. And while the halo effect may wear off at some point, Thomson explains, there isn’t much risk to Kelce as an NFL player with Swift’s audience not being core football fans. There’s a balance, though. Kelce could take a reputational hit if he is perceived to be trading off Swift’s fame, and her fan base has a history of turning on her exes.

“The Swifties are serious about Taylor,” Delpy Neirotti says. “They’re very protective.” And, hey, if it doesn’t work out for these two kids who were both born in 1989, Swift will have a pretty soft landing. Forbes ranks her among the richest self-made women in America with a net worth of $780 million .

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Recent gaffes by President Joe Biden have “made a significant impact” on the polls and are “reinforcing fears within Democratic ranks” that he’s too old to serve a second White House term, according to one political scientist.

Last week Biden was criticized after appearing to confuse the Congressional Black Caucus with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at a gala dinner, and for walking off at the end of a press conference without shaking the hand of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leaving his counterpart looking visibly irritated. On September 11, he claimed to have visited Ground Zero in New York the day after the 9/11, 2001 terrorist attacks, despite there being no record of the then-Senator being in the city that day.

Republican critics have seized on Biden’s blunders to argue the 80 year old, who has announced he is seeking re-election in November 2024, lacks the necessary cognitive faculties to perform his job properly. A number of recent polls indicate Biden has fallen behind former President Donald Trump should the pair have a second head-to-head battle, with one Washington Post -ABC News poll giving the Republican front-runner a lead of 10 percent , though the newspaper noted this is an outlier.

Speaking to Newsweek Thomas Whalen, an expert in American political history who teaches at Boston University, argued Biden’s gaffes partly explain his poor polling despite some improvement to the economic situation over the last few months.

He said: “If the recent polls are any indications, these missteps have made a significant impact and reinforced fears within Democratic ranks that Biden is too old for another four years. Given the low unemployment rate and improved economy overall in recent months, Biden should be gaining in the polls, not dropping. I think the age issue is chiefly responsible.

“Perhaps this trend will embolden someone like Gavin Newsom of California to throw his hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination for 2024. We’ll see.”

David A. Bateman, an associate professor at Cornell University’s department of government, agreed that Biden’s gaffes could be an issue if they “aggregate into a perception that he is too old to be an effective president,” but argued they are largely priced in by the public.

Addressing Newsweek he commented: “Biden has always made gaffes. It’s not anything new, and I think much of that is more or less baked into voters’ understanding of him. For example, I don’t expect his saying he was in NYC the day after 9/11 is going to make any difference. Not only is this sort of thing very Biden-like, but it’s the kind of thing a lot of people can recognize themselves doing: we all misremember the days surrounding important historical events, shortening or lengthening timelines around them.

“The bigger issue is if these gaffes aggregate into a perception that he is too old to be an effective president. In that sense, Biden’s opponents would be wise to paint the 9/11 story not as a falsehood or lie or indicative of his character—most voters either already ‘know’ his character—but to frame it as a symptom of a person in decline. That perception could weigh heavily against him.”

Trump, 77, has also made a number of gaffes in recent months, and faced mockery on Friday after branding Biden “cognitively impaired” before saying the president could lead America into “World War II,” and claiming wind turbines are causing whales to “die in numbers never seen before.”

Bateman argued Trump’s mistakes get less attention than Biden’s because the media is focused on his legal troubles, stating: “Trump is also old, and makes equivalent ‘gaffes.’

“This is not as big a part of how Trump might be perceived or is framed in the media at the moment, but that’s largely because the media focuses less on his age and seeming confusion than on his facing multiple indictments and having tried to overturn democratic elections. That’s not really an advantage for Trump. Better people debating whether a candidate is aging than whether they are a criminal with contempt for democratic institutions.”

Newsweek has approached the White House press office for comment by email.

President Joe Biden visited with striking autoworkers in Michigan for only twelve minutes on Wednesday before jetting off to a California fundraiser.

Biden did not hang around for even half an hour with union members of the United Autoworkers (UAW) in Wayne County. The Washington Post’s stream of the event shows he arrived as picketers marched in a circle chanting, “What do we want? Contracts! When do we want it? Now!”

Biden spoke from a bullhorn for just over one minute after his entrance before turning it over to UAW President Shawn Fain.

“Folks, stick with it. You deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits,” Biden said.

He spoke briefly again before leaving the event 12 minutes after he arrived, the Daily Mail noted , as John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” played.

As Breitbart News has documented, autoworkers are striking for wage increases against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis in the wake of 40-year-high inflation under Biden’s administration, which has significantly diminished the buying power of the dollar compared to when former President Donald Trump left office.

Another chief concern among autoworkers is Biden’s electric vehicle agenda, as they seek assurances from automakers and the federal government that it will not devastate their jobs or wages, Breitbart News reported .

After briefly meeting with the union workers, Biden jetted off to California on Air Force One for an elitist Democrat fundraiser in Atherton in the Bay Area, where tickets began at $5,000 and capped at $100,000, NBC Bay Area reported .

SUMMER OF STRIKES! Michigan Auto Workers Strike Against “The Big Three”

UAW International Union via Storyful

“$100,000 dinners are something 99% of Americans have no hope of ever participating in,” Cal State East Bay Professor and Political Analyst Nolan Higdon told the outlet. “The fact that people in the Atherton area can come up with that type of money, it tells you exactly why he’s having a campaign meeting here in the Bay Area.”

Biden’s visit to Michigan came a day before Trump is set to appear with striking workers of the UAW in Detroit as counter-programming to the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday. Notably, Biden only announced he would attend the picket line after Trump’s plan to deliver a “prime time speech before current and former” UAW workers in Detroit was revealed .

Trump has been adamant that the “Electric Car SCAM” is selling the UAW “down the ‘drain.’”

“They’ll be made in China, under Crooked Joe’s CHINA FIRST POLICY. AUTOWORKERS, VOTE FOR TRUMP – I’LL MAKE YOU VICTORIOUS & RICH,” he wrote in a Truth Social post earlier this month.

“IF YOUR ‘LEADERS’ WON’T ENDORSE ME, VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE, NOW. WITH THE DEMOCRATS & CROOKED JOE CALLING THE SHOTS, YOU’LL BE JOBLESS & PENNILESS WITHIN 4 YEARS,” he added.