Taylor Swift is not the only well-known girlfriend in sports
By CAROLYN (CARI) FENN — sports@theaggie.org
Taylor Swift and her fandom have recently joined the world of sports thanks to her new relationship with Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce. As Swift’s fans are now discovering the world of football, ticket and jersey sales have skyrocketed along with broadcast viewership as fans hope to catch a glimpse of the singer during a game. With her new sports beau, Swift has now gained the title of WAG within the sports world.
A WAG is a term that refers to the wives and girlfriends of high-profile sportsmen and women. The term was originally coined by British tabloids during the 2006 FIFA World Cup to describe the wives and girlfriends of the English national soccer team, such as Cheryl Tweedy and Coleen McLoughlin, among others.
While the term WAG has been around for nearly two decades, it has seen a revival in recent years thanks to not only celebrities like Swift, but also social media platforms such as TikTok. These platforms allow WAGs to post content to give their followers an insight into the sports world. Women have been transforming the misogynistic title into a career, building followings on social media, creating businesses, gaining impressive partnerships and even increasing their significant others’ fan base thanks to their popularity.
While some WAGS had already made a name for themselves in their careers before their relationships, such as Swift, decorated gymnast Simone Biles, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and supermodel Gisele Bündchen, many have established fame while in their relationship. It is important to highlight what these WAGS have done by not only establishing and growing their followings, but their businesses as well.
Kristin Juszczyk
Kristin Juszcyk is a fashion designer and the wife of San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszcyk. Kristin garnered a great deal of attention in 2024 after creating custom Kansas City Chiefs-themed puffer jackets for Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes. The puffer jackets went viral after Swift wore hers to a game, increasing Juszcyk’s following by hundreds of thousands in a short period of time. Her incredible work ended up even getting her a signed deal with the NFL, allowing Juszczyk to license team logos on her clothes and sell her designs to the public.
While Juszczyk has only recently garnered a huge following and recognition for her incredible work, she has been making game-day looks for numerous years, not only for herself but for other WAGS and celebrities as well. She has made custom vests for Simone Biles and Olivia Culpo, and even a custom jacket for Taylor Lautner.
While she hasn’t been able to sell her custom clothes until now, she is taking full advantage of her new NFL license by creating an NFL Super Bowl Puffer Vest. The vest ended up selling for $75,000, with all the proceeds going toward breast cancer research. Now that Juszczyk has started making her mark in the NFL, it will be interesting to see what she will do in the future.
Allison Kucharcyk
Allison Kucharcyk is one of the more well-known WAG Tiktokers who is married to NFL defensive end Issac Rochell. She has gained her 3.1 million followers through not only creating lifestyle videos, but more importantly through giving a very real and true look into the brutal sports industry, something that isn’t often talked about. Her videos have shown the ups and downs of her and her husband’s life, since his career moves them all around the country as he tries to find a new team to sign with. This lifestyle is common for many NFL players as they bounce around from team to team when cuts get made throughout the year.
What made Kucharcyk gain such a massive following was the honesty and realness that she portrayed on the internet. Kucharcyk has built a rather successful social media presence that has brought her numerous business ventures by showing the real sides of being a WAG to people curious enough to listen.
Morgan Riddle
Fashion influencer Morgan Riddle is the girlfriend of American tennis player Taylor Fritz. Due to her growing fame and popularity, she has been dubbed by the New York Times to be “the most famous woman in men’s tennis.” With her ever-growing popularity from her Tiktok page, she has become somewhat of a niche celebrity at many tennis matches.
While Riddle originally gained followers and popularity from trying on outfits to go to Fritz’s tennis matches, she has transformed this fame into incredible opportunities. She has since been hired by Wimbledon to host a video series on fashion at the tournament called “Wimbledon Threads” and has released two pieces of gold-plated jewelry with a small New York jewelry company called Lottie.
While many people would believe that her tennis boyfriend funds her lifestyle, Riddle has been able to remain financially independent thanks to the income she makes through social media like TikTok. Riddle has been able to make a career out of social media, while still being able to travel around the world and support her tennis beau.
Although there are many more WAGs of professional athletes, it is hard to mention them all in one article. What people often don’t realize, is that there are more WAGs in the sports world more similar to Juszcyck or Kucharcyk than Swift who deserve just as much recognition for the work they have done. Despite not being world-renowned artists or athletes themselves, they have owned their WAG-ness and have transformed the misogynistic title to be their own.
Written by: Carolyn (Cari) Fenn — sports@theaggie.org
