Ben Gilbert
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Appearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
has just done a lot of work to make it a sort of family sport, a household sport.
But post-Taylor, the fan base at the Chiefs is 57% women, 43% men.
I'm fascinated that the NFL tried to take kind of a hands-off approach at first.
And the first couple broadcasts, there was a lot of heat for, stop showing Taylor Swift in the box.
But then the NFL definitely made a decision at some point that, okay, we trust this now.
A thing that I paid zero attention to that was brought to my attention is the rise of flag football.
So it's the way that a lot of women get into the game because girls actually play flag football now as kids and they were never playing tackle football before.
has leagues or sponsors leagues like local flag football leagues where they all are named after NFL teams.
And it's getting a lot more kids into the game, especially as tackle football sort of wanes in popularity due to the concussion risk and injury risk.
So from 2019 to 2023, tackle football decreased 5% for the youngest age group playing, but flag football increased by 16%.
So this is, I believe, the fastest growing youth sport in America.
It's growing really fast internationally as well, which this is the 30-year win for the NFL.