How the NFL (and Netflix) Stole Christmas From the NBA
Allison Kucharczyk knows all the stereotypes about the wives of NFL players: They’re gold diggers living the good life on the sidelines while their husbands collect the paychecks. Married to free agent Isaac Rochell, she built a following on TikTok in part by skewering this imagined persona.
Through her videos, however, she also reveals the repeated cross-country moves, precarity of the practice squad, and elation of a breakthrough game. “Once I started being vulnerable about things I was actually going through and the other side of football that so many people didn’t see, I started to see a lot more people interested in that,” she tells Front Office Sports.
Kucharczyk, who boasts more than three million followers, is part of a rising generation of WAGs (wives and girlfriends of professional athletes). With platforms, brands, and followings sometimes surpassing those of their partners, they’re valuable envoys to young women and others who may not have previously seen themselves reflected in mainstream sports culture.
When Kylie Kelce, the wife of former Eagles star Jason Kelce, dropped the first episode of her new podcast Not Gonna Lie, she ousted reigning king Joe Rogan from the top spot on listener charts. In the book world, the booming romance genre is becoming an entrée to sports thanks to real-life WAG authors, including Alexa Martin, creator of the NFL-inspired Playbook Series, and Lexi LaFleur Brown, whose debut novel, a hockey rom-com called Shoot Your Shot, is out this March.
Amazon Prime Video and Netflix each have WAG-focused shows on their lineups for 2025: Amazon’s docuseries Married to the Game, now in its second season in the U.K. and Ireland, follows the partners of Premier League soccer players. Netflix’s Real Housewives–esque reality show W.A.G.s to Riches makes it clear they aren’t content with staying behind the scenes.
“The old definition of WAG was, ‘Oh, I’m a kept bitch,’” boxing wife and entrepreneur Porsha Berto says in the trailer. “But now I’m making my money. That’s the new WAG.”
“WAG” was popularized as an acronym in the mid-2000s through catty tabloid headlines that painted Victoria Beckham and fellow wives of U.K. soccer stars as shallow party girls with blond highlights and designer handbags. They were treated as objects to ogle, envy, or disdain.
Now, they’re telling their own stories—and fans are following and relating to them. Sports executives have taken notice: Across nearly all fandoms, young women are a fast-growing, sought-after demographic (a trend happening in tandem, and not coincidentally, with the growing popularity and visibility of women’s professional sports). Leagues and broadcasters hope to reach more of them by bringing players’ significant others into the fold as ambassadors, consultants, and on-air talent.
The NFL told FOS it fast-tracked its official licensing process for Kristin Juszczyk—fashion designer and wife of San Francisco 49er Kyle Juszczyk—after her custom jackets for fellow WAGs Taylor Swift and Simone Biles made her a social media sensation. That move opened the door for Juszczyk to create Off Season, a collection of puffers released in time for this season’s playoffs in partnership with Fanatics. NHL Productions, meanwhile, just debuted Never Offside with Julie & Cat, a new podcast hosted by Julie Petry and Cat Toffoli, whose respective husbands, Jeff and Tyler, play for the Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks.
Brands, too, are changing their strategies. “Many lifestyle partnerships that we’ve done in the past with wives and girlfriends of professional athletes have been more about what’s going on at home, whether it’s with food or kids and family,” says Taylor Michelle Gerard, VP of creative and creator at content agency Blue Hour Studios.
Throughout the past year, though, advertisers’ asks have shifted. “It’s much more, ‘Can you talk about the game? What helps you get a better night of sleep? How are you thinking about nutrition in terms of actual athleticism?’” It’s a tacit acknowledgment that both sides of a couple together make decisions that influence a player’s success.
Bria Clemmons says she often thinks of herself as sort of a “sixth man” off the court. Clemmons, whose husband, Anthony, plays in the Japanese B.League, is a lawyer and former sports journalist who works with athletes and their spouses to build businesses and leverage their platforms.
“You’re not a starter, but you’re the first person who comes off the bench … and a lot of times, the sixth man is more valuable than one of the starters because they fill whatever role needs to be filled in that moment,” she tells FOS. “The team can call and say, ‘Hey, you just got traded to New York.’ And the athlete’s on a flight. No one’s thinking about who has to pack up an entire house and move across the country.”
Follow today’s WAGs on TikTok and Instagram, and you’ll see women doing just that (sometimes at eight months pregnant). You’ll also see them working out alongside their partners, driving them to doctor’s appointments when they get injured, and rounding up their families to celebrate a big win.
It’s a POV that simply wasn’t accessible a decade ago. “I think back to when my husband first got in the NHL, and people lived a more private life. You weren’t on Tumblr talking about showing a behind-the-scenes glance at the family room,” says LaFleur Brown, who documents both her journey as a first-time author and her life alongside former NHL player JT Brown on TikTok. “Maybe that’s a generational shift, maybe that’s the platform shift, but it’s giving these women a voice, and it’s giving them permission to share their story and share their experience.”
While many of her followers came to her page as hockey fans, plenty more were hooked by the insider gossip and high-energy commentary on everything from mom-shaming to players’ struggles buying jeans. Still, she’s struck by how often she fields questions about the minutiae of the game and the industry. “The people who are viewing my TikToks are mostly women, and I love that they’re interested in all these details. They’re interested in the collective bargaining agreement. They’re interested in the back end of what these contracts look like.”
The goodwill WAGs generate can be a boon to their partners, too. When fans care about a player’s story, they’re more invested: They watch games, buy jerseys, and root for new teams.
In the ideal scenario, a higher profile can lead to spokesperson or broadcast deals that give a player’s career longevity well beyond the day they hang up their jerseys. “They’re all going to retire one day, and the money won’t be what it always was,” says Stacey Bell-Lynn, a longtime news anchor and wife of NFL coach Anthony Lynn. “If you can build your brand and your following now on social media, you’ve already got that audience that you’re plugged into.”
