The videos appeared, as these things do, in rapid succession: Justin Herbert on the practice field with his fiancée, the pop singer Madison Beer. Joe Burrow with Olivia Ponton, the influencer who may or may not be his girlfriend, depending on which gossip taxonomy you prefer. Jaxson Dart with Marissa Ayers. Training camp, it seemed, had become a backdrop for couples content.
Sports Twitter, which notices everything and forgives nothing, observed that player partners had not previously enjoyed such prominent cameos in preseason activities. Was this coordinated? A source close to the league confirmed to Front Office Sports that yes, the tender-canoodling-at-camp videos were part of a larger content campaign. (What, you were expecting the league to say it was all spontaneous?)
The effort fits neatly into what the N.F.L. calls its "helmets-off" marketing strategy — a phrase that sounds like it was coined in a conference room where someone had recently read a book about authenticity.
"The content is authentic, genuine and relatable," Ian Trombetta, the league's senior vice president of social and influencer marketing, told Front Office Sports, using three words that mean approximately the same thing in case one of them didn't land.
The strategy is not without logic. Ms. Beer, Ms. Ponton and Ms. Ayers are all Gen Z content creators who collectively command more than 70 million followers across Instagram and TikTok — a figure that exceeds the N.F.L.'s own social footprint by some 17 million. When Mr. Herbert proposed to Ms. Beer in late July, the league reposted her photos and collected roughly ten times its usual engagement.
The league has been moving in this direction since Taylor Swift began appearing at Kansas City Chiefs games in 2023, turning football broadcasts into a secondary venue for celebrity-relationship coverage. Female viewership rose. Merchandise sales followed.
Research from U.S.C. Annenberg published in July found that nearly half of Gen Z fans become interested in a sport because of something outside the sport itself — like, say, an athlete's romantic life. The N.F.L., which approved a $32 million investment in a professional flag football league last December and has its eye on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, appears to have taken the finding seriously.
The Bengals declined to comment. The Giants did not respond. The Chargers said they were not planning any formalized content around Ms. Beer specifically, which may have been the most honest statement of the week.
Original story published in Front Office Sports: "NFL's WAG Content Strategy"