Taylor Swift should be thanked by the NFL for its salary cap surge, a league insider has said, after it increased to a record $255.4million.
Swift drew plenty more eyeballs to the sport this season amid her relationship with Chiefs star Travis Kelce, with the pop star becoming a fixture at his games and even attending Kansas City’s Super Bowl win over the 49ers.
And after the NFL announced its salary cap would be increasing by $30.6million from the year prior, an unnamed insider has suggested to Sportskeeda that Swift played a role.
‘The league should send Taylor Swift a ‘Thank You! … she certainly didn’t hurt!,’ they said.
The salary cap was $224.8 million in 2023.
The league cited two reasons for such a large increase.
First, the teams have fully repaid loans they took out in order to guarantee players were paid their full salaries during the pandemic affected 2020 season.
Second, the NFL pointed to ‘an extraordinary increase in media revenue for the 2024 season’ as another reason for the jump.
Since the start of the decade, the NFL’s salary cap has increased $57.2m in spite of a global pandemic resulting in a decrease of roughly $16m in 2021.
Compared to 2014, the 2024 budget is $122.4m bigger and 2004’s cap was about $174.8m less than this coming season’s.
Following his third Super Bowl win with the Chiefs, Kelce briefly jetted down to Australia to spend time with his girlfriend Swift as she brought her Eras Tour to Sydney.
He was later seen back in Las Vegas downing champagne and partying.
His profile has certainly risen as a result of his relationship with the global star, as he’s reportedly been flooded with sponsorship offers from the likes of Calvin Klein, Samsonite and Toyota.