Behind every good man is an even better woman. And behind every good footballer is his WAG. They are 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 since Taylor Swift became the partner of a gridiron star last September.
These women have brands outside of football, but performing in a luxury suite and looking their best has become part of their job.
Due to the busy schedules of NFL players during the season, their girlfriends and wives create their own teams and have become close.
Swift befriended Brittany Mahomes, similar to how Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes started a brotherhood that traveled the country supporting the Chiefs.
Here are some of the NFL’s top WAGs and their impact near and far from the playing field.
Simone Biles is perhaps the best athlete of this generation and the best gymnast ever
Simone Biles
It’s not a bad thing for Jonathan Owens to have one of the best athletes of all time on your arm, right? That is, only if you recognize her.
Owens came under fire multiple times for stating that he didn’t know who Biles was when they first met on celebrity dating app Raya in 2020.
Biles is on the sidelines in Green Bay and Chicago to support her husband.
Biles may have the second most interest in her life outside of the NFL, as she dominated at the Paris Olympics this year, winning three gold medals and a silver medal.
Biles met Chicago Bears star Jonathan Owens in 2020 and the couple married last year
Olivia Culpo
Olivia Culpo and Christian McCaffrey started dating in 2019, but she was a household name in her own right long before that.
A former beauty pageant queen, Culpo separately won Miss USA and Miss Universe in 2012 on her way to a successful modeling career (she currently has 5.4 million Instagram followers).
She most notably dated 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 seen supporting at Levi’s Stadium – got married earlier this year in a lavish ceremony in Rhode Island.
“We tried to keep this quiet for as long as possible, but apparently the news spreads quickly,” she said on Instagram afterwards. “I’m marrying my best friend.”
Culpo surprised McCaffrey’s mother with a Super Bowl suite after she claimed her son — who made $11.8 million this year — couldn’t afford one.
Olivia Culpo won Miss USA and Miss Universe in 2012, several years before she met McCaffrey
McCaffrey and Culpo have been dating since 2019, got engaged last year and married in June
Alex Earle
Social media sensation Earlie started dating Braxton Berrios after splitting from Olivia Culpo’s younger sister Sophia last year.
They met in early 2023 but didn’t confirm their casual romance until June. The couple finally made their relationship official last November.
In the months since, they haven’t been shy about packing on the PDA and talking over each other in interviews.
They also jetted off 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’ season was ended in October when he was diagnosed with a torn ACL following Miami’s game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Alix Earle is one of the few WAGs on this list with a larger following than their partners
Earle and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Braxton Berrios have been dating for more than a year
Brittany Mahomes
Patrick and Brittany Mahomes have gone from high school kids to a power couple in the NFL, as the three-time Super Bowl MVP is already one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
The expectant mother of three’s support for Donald Trump after bestie Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president may have hit some speed bumps in her personal life.
However, the Kelce, Swift and Mahomes duo enjoyed the US Open men’s tennis final together in New York City in September before heading to Manhattan for a luxurious Mediterranean dinner.
Brittany Mahomes’ status was perhaps the most elevated by WAG culture
She has been married to Patrick Mahomes since 2022 and was not famous outside of him
Taylor Swift
Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ took the world by storm.
It grossed a whopping $2.2 billion in its nearly two-year run, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time for the second year in a row.
The global event kicked off in Arizona on March 17, 2023, and ended just earlier this month after 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, in late 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, fourteen in total, and flew on private jets to attend his girlfriend’s concerts in places like Singapore, Australia and Germany. He even appeared on stage for one song in London.
Swift has repaid her boyfriend’s support by taking a seat in a luxury NFL suite 19 times to watch him and the Chiefs play.
Their record in those matches? 16-3, including a current double-digit win streak dating back to last season’s playoff win over the Dolphins.
Now that the Eras Tour is over, expect Swift to watch her beau more and more often as the playoffs approach.
Hailee Steinfeld
Steinfeld’s time as an NFL WAG hasn’t been as publicized as the rest on this list, as she kept her romance with Josh Allen out of the public eye until recently.
If there’s a time to release information, getting engaged is an excellent time to do it, as Allen took a knee down on his left knee last month.
Allen and Steinfeld started dating last May, long after she was nominated for an Oscar for “True Grit” and starred in the series “Pitch Perfect.”
‘[Hailee’s] been a big part. The morale, the support. When I come home, she’s my biggest fan, my biggest supporter. She’s just the best,” Allen recently told the BBC Associated press.
Hailee Steinfeld is very famous and has kept her romance with Josh Allen mostly offline
Allen and Steinfeld have been dating for about 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 was by Wilson’s side during each of his three career stops in Seattle, Denver and Pittsburgh.
The pair reportedly met in 2015 at a University of Wisconsin basketball game – the school where Wilson finished his college football career.
Before she started her NFL era, Ciara was a huge pop star and has a brand of music all her own
Russell Wilson and Ciara married in 2016 and the couple have three children together
The couple later made their first public appearance at a state dinner at the White House.
While enjoying 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.