Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner is hardly sneaky about his appreciation for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship — and the impact it has made on the NFL.
“Our sport has become as much about spectacle as anything that’s out there — and so I love it,” Warner, 52, tells PEOPLE while sharing details about his upcoming Super Bowl partnership with Bingo Blitz Big Game Sweepstakes. “I love it more for those two because I know Travis and I’m a big fan, and that it seems to be working well for those two. ”He adds, “It brings another layer of excitement to the games and to what’s going on, and to a fan base that maybe hadn’t watched that much football before, and now we’re watching it and maybe they tuned in for something besides football.”
It’s all high praise coming from the man who helmed the St. Louis Rams’ high-flying offense in the late ’90s — otherwise known as “The Greatest Show on Turf” — which was a spectacle in and of itself. Now, the sports analyst says he’s happy that the game’s audience is evolving, however it may look. “To me it’s about building a fan base, whatever that fan base looks like,” Warner says.
“So I’m on NFL Network and I try to speak to the fan base, that’s the diehard football people that want to learn football,” he continues, explaining that “we also got fantasy football, right? That’s taken off. Why? Because there’s a lot of people that aren’t diehards that don’t necessarily want to watch every game and follow every player, but it gets them connected to our game.” Warner adds, “And I believe things like this with Taylor Swift and Travis — and not to just make it something, ‘Oh, it’s helping our league,’ or ‘It’s building a fan base’ — but I do believe that it’s brought more to our game.”
For the multifaceted Warner — who is also a husband, father of seven and high school coach — the newfound engagement is also a metaphor for life. Sometimes we find ourselves down a path to do something, not really expecting to get engaged or connected to that thing, but once we get there, we’re like, ‘Oh man, I really like this. I enjoy this,’ ” he says. “And now they become fans for life. And so I’m all for all that stuff as long as it’s done in a positive way.” Such an optimistic outlook is seemingly why Warner is enjoying another job these days: promoting a new sweepstakes with online game Bingo Blitz
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