For much of its 2023 and 2024 seasons, the National Football League welcomed the economic and cultural benefits of the “Taylor Swift effect.”

The league reveled in a surge in sponsorship, ratings and female viewership because the once-in-a-generation female celebrity was dating a star NFL player and showing her love of attending football games.

Ahead of Super Bowl LVIII in 2024, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell even proclaimed that Swift’s high-profile embrace of football, vis-a-vis her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, was “great for us.”

But at Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX, with Goodell sitting at the 50-yard line with President Donald Trump, one of the most admired and successful women in the world was aggressively booed by thousands at the New Orleans Superdome. Soon after the boos, Trump, the game’s guest of honor, went on social media to bash Swift, as he tends to do with other famous people who oppose him politically or who challenge to his cultural authority. On Truth Social, he falsely said Swift had been booed “out of the stadium” — she in fact stayed to watch the game — and declared: “MAGA is very unforgiving.”

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – FEBRUARY 09: Commissioner of the NFL Roger Goodell (L) meets with U.S. President Donald Trump before Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles at Caesars Superdome on February 09, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) 

For one female writer attending Sunday’s game, the effect of the boos and Trump’s subsequent Truth Social posts raised “significant” questions about whether the NFL was reverting to its old “toxic” ways.

Stephanie McNeal, writing for Glamour, said there have been several times that she has “felt chilled by the rapid increase in misogyny seeping in our culture” since Trump was elected president for a second term. “But watching Taylor Swift at Super Bowl LIX booed by a crowd of thousands on Sunday night was a new low,” McNeal wrote.

Some people have suggested that Swift was merely heckled by some rowdy Philadelphia Eagles fans as her face appeared on the Jumbotron. The Eagles fans were understandably pumped about watching their team defeat her boyfriend’s Chiefs 40-22.  But what happened to Swift was something else, said McNeal.

“An almost instant—and distinctly male—dissent erupted from around me,” she said she witnessed. “As soon Swift appeared on screen, the crowd seemed to delight in jeering and heckling her, and the mood shift was palpable.”

McNeal said the moment might have “felt less visceral” if not for the fact that the crowd exploded into cheers less than an hour earlier, when Trump appeared on the same Jumbotron, standing in salute as Jon Batiste sang the national anthem. While social media showed that some boos were directed at Trump, overall, “the roar and approval” for him “was deafening,” McNeal wrote.

Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly, who also was at the Super Bowl, sitting between Trump and Swift’s luxury boxes, confirmed the different reactions to Swift and Trump on her blog. She declared, “It was just so obvious the crowd loved Trump.” She also repeated Trump’s Truth Social post that, other than the Kansas City Chiefs, Swift was “the biggest loser of the night.”

To McNeal, the different reactions in this NFL arena “felt like a message.” It is that the Super Bowl, one of the biggest cultural events in the country, “has been reclaimed by Trump and the type of toxic masculinity he appears to be the beacon of,” she said.

If that’s the case with the Super Bowl, it marks a stunning turnaround from 2024’s game, when sports, entertainment and news outlets couldn’t get enough of celebrating Swift at the game, pumping out photos of her cheering on the Chiefs as they defeated the San Francisco 49ers, or of her embracing and kissing Kelce on the field as he and his team received their second-straight Vincent Lombardi Trophy.

US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift (C) and Ashley Avignone (R) attend Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 11, 2024. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) 

Before and after the 2024 Super Bowl, much was written about the “Taylor Swift effect” and the mega-star’s ability to attract female viewers to NFL games across different age demographics. One study showed that Swift’s game-day appearances, including at the 2024 Super Bowl, boosted NFL viewership in the ages 12-17 demographic by 8%, while a league spokesperson told McNeal that its following among women jumped 21% from 2023 to 2024. Ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl, Marketwatch reported that the NFL should consider making Swift “an unofficial MVP” by reporting that she has helped the NFL earn nearly $1 billion in brand value since she began dating Kelce in the summer of 2023.

This news organization also detailed how Swift helped boost the personal and professional profiles of other wives and girlfriends of NFL players — the so-called WAGs. The 14-time Grammy award winner notably created a viral moment for Kristin Juszczyk, the fashion designer wife of 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk. Swift wore a red, custom-designed Kristin Juszczyk puffer jacket to the Jan. 13, 2024 game, and the 49ers spouse soon landed an NFL licensing deal to produce stylish, sports-themed fashions.

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) kisses Taylor Swift after the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. The Chiefs won 25-22. (AP Photo/John Locher) 

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The NFL enjoyed other benefits of the “Taylor Swift effect,” building on stories about her interest in professional football to show that the game has made strides in its effort to shed its reputation as a boys-only club, plagued by a succession of sexual assaults, sexual harassment and domestic violence scandals.

Teams like the 49ers have been very public about their initiatives to mirror social attitudes about diversity and equality by working to attract Swift’s demographic of fans — girls and young women and members of the LGBTQ community  — and to hire increasing numbers of women, especially in leadership positions. But now the NFL may face questions about how seriously it wants to expand its appeal when the crowd at its annual championship game loudly cheered a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and assault, while loudly booing a talented, accomplished and highly influential woman who had become one of the sport’s most enthusiastic boosters.

Certainly, there was a bit less excitement this year about Swift attending the Super Bowl. The novelty of her dating Kelce has worn off. The pop mega-star also isn’t expected to be as visible as she has been the past two years, as she ended her blockbuster Eras Tour in December. Moreover, she wasn’t coming off the buzz of just being named Time’s Person of the Year, as was the case in early 2024.

Indeed Donald Trump succeeded Swift as Time’s Person of the Year in 2024 and, critics say, has been using his presidency to dismantle decades of government efforts to improve social and economic opportunities for women, people of color and queer people. He and Swift represent “two factions of American culture currently struggling for dominance,” McNeal said.

When it comes to the NFL, the reality is that Swift was never universally embraced by football fans, McNeal acknowledged. A large and vocal contingent of mostly male fans complained about her presence at games being a “distraction.” Kelly also tried to justify Swift being booed by blaming her, saying she’s let herself be “overexposed” to the point that the public has become sick of her. Kelly also said that Swift alienated half the country by getting political and by endorsing Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris.

Whether Kelly is right, some of Swift’s fans argued on X that Trump and his supporters didn’t exactly distinguish themselves, or boost the public image of the NFL, with their conduct at the Super Bowl Sunday. They said that Trump showed his “narcissism” by sharing side-by-side images of himself being cheered while Swift was booed.

“A grown man, nearly an octogenarian, seeking validation like a 10-year-old on the playground. Pathetic. But true to form,” one person said, while another said that Trump is “a bully who obviously needs to tear down others because his fragile ego can’t take it.” One woman furthermore suggested that Swift haters at the Super Bowl revealed that NFL fandom might be filled with “sad, grown-ass men” who “are threatened by (Swift’s) presence.”

To McNeal, Trump and his booing supporters seemed to announce that the NFL’s “era of inclusivity” is over. She wrote: “Not only does it feel like Trump and his ilk want Swift out of football, it’s like they want to return our entire country to a time when they were in control, had all the power, and could say whatever they wanted without repercussions.”