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As he waited for a name from his agent in September, Isaac Rochell, knowledgeable soccer participant on the lookout for a staff, watched the National Football League’s opening weekend video games on tv along with his toddler daughter. His spouse wanted a child sitter.
Allison Kucharczyk, Rochell’s spouse and an internet influencer with greater than three million TikTok followers, was nearer to the sphere than he was due to a partnership with NBC Sports. She was crisscrossing continents on a personal jet with different content material creators to doc a weekend of rowdy tailgates, concession meals and stadium environments at N.F.L. video games in Kansas City, Mo.; São Paulo, Brazil; and Detroit.
By documenting her way of life as knowledgeable athlete’s spouse, Kucharczyk has turn out to be extra well-known than Rochell, who reached the best degree of his sport however by no means grew to become a family title. When collectively in public, Rochell mentioned, folks typically ask for Kucharczyk’s autograph as a substitute of his.
“It doesn’t harm my ego — I’m excited for her — nevertheless it was loopy,” mentioned Rochell, a defensive lineman who has performed for 4 N.F.L. groups in seven seasons.
As the N.F.L. and its media companions courtroom extra feminine viewers, they’re more and more aligning with the wives and girlfriends of gamers. (The partnership of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift was inescapable final season.) They hope that potential followers who’re bored with sports activities jargon and gamers battering each other on the sphere may as a substitute reply to clothes ensembles and glamorized experiences in luxurious suites.
“When girls see me sharing in regards to the N.F.L., they’re lastly like, ‘Wow I can truly have an interest on this different than simply stats,’” Kucharczyk, 29, mentioned. “I believe there’s a spot for everyone inside sports activities.”
She added, “You don’t need to be a giant title for folks to be invested in your story.”
Rochell, 29, performed school soccer at Notre Dame and was a seventh-round draft choose by the Los Angeles Chargers in 2017. While he fought to remain on groups’ rosters for a number of seasons, he additionally was lively on their social media channels, commonly volunteering for initiatives. He proposed to Kucharczyk, whom he met at a school party, whereas they have been recording a Chargers podcast in 2020.
“If you spend 5 minutes with Allison and Isaac collectively, you see their chemistry and the way real they’re,” mentioned Jason Lavine, the Chargers’ senior vice chairman for model artistic and content material. “That sort of relationship is one thing you need to spotlight in your feed.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, the couple posted commonly on TikTok. Rochell took viewers behind the scenes of N.F.L. routines, together with the buffet-style meals that gamers eat the night time earlier than video games. Many of Kucharczyk’s posts displayed the much less glamorous facet of Rochell’s nomadic profession, comparable to dwelling aside and packing to maneuver cities — Indianapolis, Cleveland, Las Vegas — each time he switched groups.
While 9 months pregnant, Kucharczyk, who had labored as an inside designer, instructed followers that she had sobbed when the Las Vegas Raiders launched Rochell in November 2023, weeks earlier than her due date. Kucharczyk, who acknowledges that they’ve monetary assets not accessible to everybody, says the web group she fostered helped her by their chaotic moments.
“I believe sharing makes me really feel much less alone,” she mentioned.
As the couple’s social presence grew, the N.F.L. seen. The league despatched Rochell a jersey with a “Mr. Kuch” nameplate and Kucharczyk was a red-carpet correspondent at a Super Bowl occasion final yr. The couple additionally participated in a voter registration marketing campaign with former President Barack Obama.
“In this subsequent era of content material creators, they perceive how they each might be profitable and what they should do to assist one another,” mentioned Ian Trombetta, the N.F.L.’s senior vice chairman for social, influencer and content material advertising and marketing.
British tabloids coined the acronym “WAG” (wives and girlfriends) 20 years in the past to confer with the companions of soccer gamers, and a number of other well-known soccer gamers have had equally well-known spouses. The supermodel Gisele Bündchen was a public advocate for Tom Brady earlier than their 13-year marriage resulted in 2022, and the singer Ciara married the quarterback Russell Wilson in 2016.
But it was Swift’s relationship with Kelce that ignited a brand new degree of curiosity.
Kristin Juszczyk, the spouse of the San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, began a clothes line this month after designing outerwear for Swift and the Olympic gymnast Simone Biles (who’s married to the Chicago Bears security Jonathan Owens). Fox Sports recorded a section this season with Alix Earle, a TikTok influencer with seven million followers who’s relationship the Miami Dolphins receiver Braxton Berrios. And this month, Netflix will launch a sequence, “W.A.G.s to Riches,” that follows the numerous others of athletes and entertainers, together with Keeta Hill, the spouse of the Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill.
Rochell by no means obtained that decision from his agent, however he’s nonetheless coaching in hopes that an N.F.L. staff will signal him. Even if he has to retire, the league mentioned it should proceed to work with the couple.
“It’s truly simpler as a result of he’ll have extra time,” Trombetta mentioned with fun.
