Behind every good man is an even-better woman. And behind every good football player is his WAG. They’re in the crowd and sometimes on the sidelines cheering, supporting, and making sure to post about it on Instagram.
The WAG phenomenon has taken over the NFL in recent years, exploding ever since Taylor Swift joined the ranks of being partners with a gridiron star last September.
These women have brands outside of football, but making an appearance in a luxury suite, looking their best, has become part of their schtick.
With NFL players’ busy schedules during the season, their girlfriends and wives create teams of their own and have become close.
Swift befriended Brittany Mahomes very similarly to how Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes started a brotherhood traveling the country to support the Chiefs.
Here are some of the NFL’s premier WAGs and their impacts near and far away from the gridiron.
Simone Biles is arguably the best athlete of this generation and the greatest gymnast ever
Simone Biles
Having one of the best athletes of all-time on your arm isn’t bad for Jonathan Owens, isn’t it? That is, only if you recognize her.
Owens came under fire on multiple occasions for stating he did not know who Biles was when they first met on the celebrity dating app Raya in 2020.
Biles has been on the sidelines in Green Bay and Chicago to support her man.
Biles may have the second-most interest in her life away from the NFL, as she dominated in the Paris Olympics this year, winning three gold medals and a silver.
Biles met Chicago Bears star Jonathan Owens in 2020 and the couple got married last year
Olivia Culpo
Olivia Culpo and Christian McCaffrey began dating in 2019, but she was a household name in her own right far before that.
A former beauty pageant queen, Culpo won Miss USA and Miss Universe separately in 2012 en route to carving out a successful career as a model (she currently has 5.4million Instagram followers).
She notably dated the likes of Nick Jonas and Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte before McCaffrey, as well as fellow NFLers Tim Tebow and Danny Amendola.
However, she and McCaffrey – who she is often seeing supporting at Levi’s Stadium – got married earlier this year in a lavish Rhode Island ceremony.
‘We tried to keep this quiet for as long as possible but apparently word travels fast,’ she said on Instagram afterwards. ‘I’m marrying my best friend.’
Culpo surprised McCaffrey’s mom with a Super Bowl suite after she claimed her son – who earned $11.8million this year – couldn’t afford one.
Olivia Culpo won Miss USA and Miss Universe in 2012 several years before meeting McCaffrey
McCaffrey and Culpo have been dating since 2019, got engaged last year and married in June
Alix Earle
Social media sensation Earlie started dating Braxton Berrios after his split from Olivia Culpo’s younger sister Sophia last year.
They met in early 2023, but didn’t confirm their casual romance until that June. The couple eventually made their relationship official last November.
In the months since, they haven’t been shy about packing on the PDA and gushing over each other in interviews.
They also jetted to Europe for the summer, where they were seen relaxing on the beach in Italy before attending a star-studded wedding in the South of France.
Berrios’s season was ended in October when he was diagnosed with a torn ACL after Miami’s game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Alix Earle is one of the few WAGs on this list with a bigger following than their partners
Earle and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Braxton Berrios have been dating for over a year
Brittany Mahomes
Patrick and Brittany Mahomes have gone from high-school sweethearts to an NFL power couple, as the three-time Super Bowl MVP is already one of the best quarterbacks of all-time.
The soon-to-be mother of three’s support of Donald Trump, after bestie Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for President may have given her personal life some speed bumps.
However, the foursome of Kelce, Swift, and the Mahomes duo enjoyed the US Open men’s tennis final in New York City together in September, before heading to Manhattan for an upscale Mediterranean dinner.
Brittany Mahomes’ status might have been elevated the most from the culture of being a WAG
She has been married to Patrick Mahomes since 2022 and was not famous outside of him
Taylor Swift
Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ took over the globe.
It brought in a staggering $2.2billion in its nearly two-year run, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time for a second year in a row.
The globe-spanning event kicked off in Arizona on March 17, 2023 and only finished earlier this month following stops in cities ranging from Buenos Aires to Paris and Tokyo.
Swift was already on tour when she began publicly dating Kelce, the NFL star and three-time Super Bowl winner with the Kansas City Chiefs, towards the end of 2023.
Arguably the most famous person in the world, Taylor Swift also has duties as an NFL WAG
Swift has been dating Travis Kelce since September 2013, when she appeared at a Chiefs game
Kelce went to a number of shows, 14 in total, and flew on private jets to take in his girlfriend’s concerts in places like Singapore, Australia and Germany. He even got on stage for one song in London.
Swift has repaid her boyfriend’s support by taking her seat in an NFL luxury suite 19 times to watch him and the Chiefs play.
Their record in those games? 16-3, including a current double-digit win streak dating back to last season’s playoff win over the Dolphins.
With the Eras Tour now over, expect to see Swift watching her lover more and more as the playoffs approach.
Hailee Steinfeld
Steinfeld’s time as an NFL WAG has not been as publicized as the rest on this list, as she’s kept her romance with Josh Allen out of the public’s eye until recently.
If there’s a time to divulge information, getting engaged is one heck of a time to do so, as Allen got down on his left knee last month.
Allen and Steinfeld started dating last May, long after she was Oscar-nominated for ‘True Grit’ and starred in the ‘Pitch Perfect’ series.
‘[Hailee’s] been a huge part. The morale, the support. When I get home, she’s my biggest fan, my biggest supporter. She’s just the best,’ Allen recently told the Associated Press.
Hailee Steinfeld is uber-famous and has mostly kept her romance with Josh Allen offline
Allen and Steinfeld have been dating for around two years and got engaged last month
Ciara
The ‘1, 2 Step’ singer has been married to Russell Wilson since 2016 and the couple have three children together.
Ciara has been by Wilson’s side for each of his three career stops in Seattle, Denver, and Pittsburgh.
The pair are believed to have met in 2015 at a University of Wisconsin basketball game – the school where Wilson finished out his college football career.
As a massive pop star before entering her NFL era, Ciara has a music brand all of her own
Russell Wilson and Ciara got married in 2016 and the couple has three children together
The couple later made their first public appearance at a state dinner at the White House.
As Wilson has enjoyed a career renaissance in the Steel City, Wilson released the song ‘Run It Up’ in August.
Ciara and Wilson share two children, daughter, Sienna, and son Win, with the singer announcing in August that they were expecting a third.
