Many sports fandoms in the world believe in curses. If their favorite team or player is underperforming, it has to be because of some bad luck or supernatural force out of their control, not just an off day or season.

Unfortunately, sometimes, these curses assign blame to real-life people close to the athletes. In some instances, people have blamed the wives and girlfriends of their favorite NFL players for the players’ shortcomings on the field, subjecting those WAGs to scrutiny they don’t deserve.

Superstar Taylor Swift received the brunt of that during the 2023-2024 football season due to her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce. Two stars who felt the same before her were Carrie Underwood and Jessica Simpson, both of whom were linked to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.

Romo’s rollercoaster of a love life includes these two blondes who got blamed for his bad games. Underwood started dating Romo in 2006, and they attended the Academy of Country Music Awards together in 2007, breaking up shortly after. While they were together, Romo played his worst game — well, his worst until he was in a relationship with Simpson. The game that stole the throne was between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles in December 2007, and Simpson was in the stands watching.

Underwood and Simpson were held responsible for Romo’s poor performance
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While watching the Cowboys-Eagles game, Jessica Simpson cheered Tony Romo on wearing a white and pink jersey with his number on it. However, she became a scapegoat, with fans feeling that she caused the bad game to happen. An insider told People it was “ridiculous” to say the bad playing was her fault. “He played a great game on Thanksgiving, and she was there,” they added.

In 2009, Romo broke it off with Simpson. In her memoir “Open Book,” Simpson explained it was because the quarterback falsely thought she had cheated on him with John Mayer. Of course, Romo had plenty more flubs on the field following his relationship with Simpson. But while they were together, it was considered all her fault.

Taylor Swift was subjected to similar treatment when she started attending NFL games for Travis Kelce. Midway through the 2023-2024 NFL Season, the Chiefs started struggling. They had lost six games, and as per usual, people thought it was somehow Swift’s fault due to her relationship with Kelce. Skip Bayless, the sports commentator, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Feels like it’s about time to call Taylor Swift a distraction. What do you think, Patrick [Mahomes]? Andy [Reid]? How about you, Travis?”

Swift has been an overall positive influence on the NFL

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A writer for Business Insider, Meredith Cash, said that the Chiefs’ real issue in the 2023-2024 season was their offensive line and felt it made no sense to say Taylor Swift was a distraction. Others didn’t like the way she was blamed either. Someone on X said, “Chiefs fans blaming Taylor Swift for this loss is ridiculous.” They brought up Jessica Simpson and other stars who’ve been scapegoats and added, “WOMEN ARE NOT TO BLAME FOR THE FAILURES OF MEN. Hold your team accountable, NOT women. #ISaidWhatISaid.”

Despite dealing with some negativity, Swift made the NFL a lot of money and brought new fans to the sport. In late January, Apex Marketing Group calculated the value of each time she was mentioned in NFL spaces based on social media hits and other coverage. They reported to Front Office Sports that she had earned $331.5 million for the NFL and the Chiefs. The List then debunked rumors that Swift was banned from the 2024 Super Bowl — why would she have been if she’s helping the NFL?

And a Swift-inspired Super Bowl ad proved the power of her relationship with Travis Kelce when it showed a father-daughter duo bond over watching Chiefs games together. Now that Swift has had such a positive influence in the football world, maybe the Crypto.com Arena will accelerate their plans to put her banner back on display?