Women Driving NFL Fan Growth, Integral Part of Company's Success

Newsweek

07-07-2025

Though they are not playing on the field, women are playing an integral role in the success of the NFL, whether they are fans or in the boardroom, or somewhere in between.
"Women are driving the growth in fandom across the NFL," Sarah Bishop, vice president of global brand and consumer marketing, told Newsweek. Bishop will appear on stage as part of the publication's Women's Global Impact event in August.
"A lot of people, when I bring up our focus on women, immediately give all the credit to Taylor Swift. And while I will never turn down the endorsements from Taylor Swift or Swifites, she really acted as more of an accelerant," Bishop said, saying that the league saw interest from women rising before Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce's girlfriend set foot in Arrowhead Stadium to watch him play.
The growing female audience, many of them young women, is getting on the fan wagon because of the league's fresh approach to communications, Bishop believes, something she says NFL CMO Tim Ellis brought to the table.
Women's Global Impact Sarah Bishop
Women's Global Impact Sarah Bishop
Newsweek Illustration/Canva
Ellis brought in the idea of humanizing NFL messaging, showcasing who players are on the field as well as off of it. Internally, it's called the "helmets off" strategy. Bishop said that the approach is introducing women to the game and its culture in an approachable way.
The NFL is also bringing in female fans by diversifying viewership experience options. "We've realized that some of our different alternative broadcasts, like our Nickelodeon broadcast or our Fun Day football, a lot of that is an amazing co-viewing opportunity for women, where they also have the ability to really root family time in that - in the community, within their household," Bishop said.
Above all, participation is the biggest lever the NFL has been able to pull to encourage female fandom. Bishop calls it, "one of our largest priorities at the league," and, "an absolute game changer for women."
"Flag football has unlocked [participation] for the first time, really in a meaningful way," she said. "There are incredible women playing tackle football, but in a meaningful way, flag football has given women the ability to see themselves in our brand from a participation perspective.
"Similarly to how women are driving the growth in fandom, women are also driving the growth in flag football as a sport, and a lot of the work that we've been able to do as an NFL ecosystem has meant that we have millions of kids participating in it.
"Now we have it sanctioned as a girls high school varsity sport in 15 states and growing. We have it in collegiate programs. It's going to be part of the LA28 [Olympic Games]... Combined with giving people more ways to watch and showing them how football intersects all these different other touch points within their lives, [it] has been a key holistic way we've been able to really connect with more casual women fans, but also with women who maybe otherwise wouldn't have considered connecting with the NFL."
In her role, Bishop looks to bring the NFL's success with female fans to a broader audience. She said: "The role [of] the NFL, in my mind, is so special. I sit on our global brand and consumer marketing team, and my specific team's focus is really recruiting the next generation of fan by keeping football at the forefront of culture and really reaffirming that football is for everyone.
"It's been incredible because we've been able to come into this iconic and historic brand that is so deeply rooted in the fabric of America, but still put our fingerprints on it and be innovative in terms of how we are showing up in conversations that exist for these audiences in familiar vernacular, introducing the game to new people and then deepening their engagement around some of the amazing properties that we have. It's sort of like a brand marketer and storyteller's dream, to be totally honest, with no downtime ever."
The makeup of the team surrounding Bishop surprised her when she joined the NFL four years ago. "I was surprised, to be honest, when I came to the NFL to see how many incredible senior female leaders there were. I don't know why. I just didn't expect that," she said.
"I've worked in consumer packaged goods. I've worked in all these other industries, and I just assumed that I would be walking into like a really male-dominated organization, and that's really not the case at all.
"I think the beauty of the NFL office from a league perspective, and this comes from the point of view that the commissioner has on, diversity generally, is that the diversity of perspectives and opinions just makes all of us better.
"It's been really interesting to see how there have been more and more and more people coming into the NFL organization, some of whom are women, some of whom are not, but that just bring incredibly diverse backgrounds and points of view, and it really has meant that the work that we do feels incredibly elevated, and also that the way we're challenging each other feels so productive and gets us to really great places. I'm very thankful for that culture, [one] that I feel like leads from within."
That diversity has led to a moment in corporate business history that Bishop believes in wholeheartedly. "I feel like it's no longer an ask, but it's an obligation of women who are in positions of power at any company, but especially in sports, to open the door for women behind them... I cringe a little bit when I have to say that, because why are we already not doing this for each other?"
She continued: "We are better by championing some of the incredible people that are beneath us and younger than us and are the next generation. And there are incredible, incredible, incredible women that are driving forward everything we do at the NFL every single day that aren't necessarily at my level or above me, and so I feel like it's like my responsibility to make sure that they're given the exposure and a seat at the table."