Even though there have been many great football players in the history of the National Football League and the 2023 season is far from over, we now know who new football fans think the GOAT is. 

It isn’t Patrick Mahomes, Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor or Joe Montana. They’re not even close. It’s an individual who never made a tackle, ran for a yard or completed a pass in a NFL game. It’s obviously Taylor Swift, who has got people that don’t know the difference between an intercepted pass, a cover two, or cover three or four for that matter, to tune into every game that she attends.

But is it fair to crown her the most popular person to ever show up at a football game? Maybe, I am an outlier. But I think that Ms. Swift has a rival. That person, of course, is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter.

Years ago, when prize fighting was popular, before each championship bout, newspapers used to publish the “tale of the tape” that compared the pugilists.

So let’s compare the two undisputed super stars:

Taylor Swift

Ms. Swift’s speculated romance with the Kansas City Chiefs football player Travis Kelce has elicited the interest of non-football fans, which can only lead to new interest in the game, at least according to the NFL’s rose colored statements.

Showing her happiness when Kelce makes a play certainly has helped the Kansas City tight end gain new prominence. After his team defeated the Chicago Bears on Sept, 24, Kelce's social media followers increased by millions and sale of jerseys with his name on it increased by 400 percent.

Fox Sports said the Chiefs-Bears game that Ms. Swift attended attracted 24.3 million viewers with a strong female audience. It was the most-watched game of the week on any network and it ranked highest among these demographics: females 12-17 years old, females 18-34 years old and females 18-49 years old. And NBC Sports said that the Oct. 1 Chiefs-New York Jets telecast averaged approximately 27 million viewers, the most-watched Sunday show since Super Bowl LVII on Fox in February 2023. During that telecast, Swift’s presence at the game was acknowledged every five minutes, either by the announcer’s comments or cameras showing her. 

Ms. Swift also attended the Chiefs - Denver Broncos game on Oct.12, sitting in the Kelce family suite. That game was televised on Prime Video, which according to Deadline had “About 13.83M people tuned in …. which was up 57% from last year’s comparable Thursday Night Football game… with a female audience of 4.92M, which is an increase of +15% over the average female viewership of TNF’s first four games this season.”

The above factoids certainly position Ms. Swift to be considered as the GOAT by some of her followers. 

Beyoncé

Beyoncé has appeared on the Super Bowl half-time show twice – once in 2013, the other time in 2016.

As reported in a July 2023, Newsweek article “comparing the number of Grammy Awards handed out by the Recording Academy, Beyoncé is in a league of her own. While Swift has had 46 nominations and won 12 Grammies, Beyoncé has had 88 nominations and 32 wins, making her the most Grammy Award-winning artist of all time.”

But on a negative note, Beyoncé has also been responsible for increasing the inflation rate. A June 15 article in the Wall Street Journal said  “Sweden’s higher-than-expected inflation in May was due in part to Beyoncé launching her Renaissance World Tour in Stockholm, according to an economist at Danske Bank. “Fans flocking to Sweden’s capital city sent hotel prices soaring, said economist Michael Grahn. Calling it a “Beyoncé blip,” he estimates that Beyoncé’s tour contributed about a 0.2 percentage point to inflation.” And while no one likes higher prices, that’s a distinction that no other artist can match.

Certainly her fans can make a case for Beyoncé to be the GOAT.

But both Swift and Beyoncé also have similarities. Both have been attacked by right-wing politicians and commentators -- Swift for opposing former President Donald Trump and for supporting the pro-choice movement. Beyoncé for her 2016 Super Bowl half-time performance. “Formation,” by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and by right wing pundits who said “Formation” attacked police officers and supported the Black Lives Matter movement. (Swift’s favorite football player, Kelce, has also been attacked by conservative operatives for endorsing the Covid-19 inoculations.)

(I never have met either Swift or Beyoncé although I once met another non-athlete super star at a ballpark. It was when I was doing publicity for the Israeli soccer team’s tour of the U.S. in 1957. On May 12, Marilyn Monroe appeared at the event, held at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, then the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and was accompanied by her then husband, playwright Arthur Miller).

I don’t think anyone but Swift and Beyoncé die hards would argue against Monroe being nominated as the show biz GOAT.

There’s no doubt that TV cameras showing Swift at a football game has attracted a larger viewership than if she wasn’t there. Much of the additional viewership was among females, which leads to the question of the long-time affect of her presence at games.

While the TV cameras show Swift cheering and hugging others in a luxury booth, it also shows the brutal aspects of the sport, as players are continually injured, some having to be carted off the field. (Often it appears that there are more injuries than points scored in a game.)

The NFL is milking the Swift-Kelce relationship, saying there’s been an incredible amount of new interest and positive publicity for the league. But when these Swifties have children, will they remember seeing her in the safe confines of the luxury box or of the injured players being helped or carted off the filed because they are unable to walk.

An article in the New York Post said, in part, “Although the singer — who’s rumored to be dating Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce — did not attend the Giants-Seahawks game at MetLife Stadium, her presence was felt when an ad for her “Eras Tour” popped up on the scoreboard.”

Which raises the question: Are the TV networks and the National Football League using Ms. Swift as a marketing gimmick, or is she using them?

I’ve written many times that because of changing conditions naming the GOAT in any profession is ridiculous.

But Jamie Burton, in his Newsweek column wrote the below:

“While it might seem to be an impossible task when considering which of the two artists is bigger, there is a literal answer to the question. “Who is bigger? Taylor Swift or Beyoncé?

“According to CelebHeights.com, Beyoncé is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, while Swift is 5 feet, 9-and-a-¼ inches.”

The Important Lesson for PR People

Selecting a star celebrity to promote a product is not the best tactic, even if it is the easiest way to attract media attention. Too often articles that will emerge after an interview will be all about the celebrity, (as were the Taylor Swift stories) with a one line mention that Mr. or Ms. ABC is a spokesperson for the DEF Company, devoid of any client talking points. As for the NFL crowing about how the Swift coverage is attracting new fans, that’s more hopeful than realistic. Only time will tell how many Swifties will remain attracted to football when the cameras stop showing her at the games.