Everyone will be watching
Everyone will be watching
They would be anyway, but especially with the Chiefs playing.
If you watch the NFL on Thursday night, it’s as good a chance as you’ll have all year that you watched the same show as someone you know. It’s probably tied with the Super Bowl.
The first and last games, bookending the football season with two rare pieces of monoculture.
The Kansas City Chiefs might appear in both of those games, just as they did last season. Interestingly enough, they lost the game to kick off the season to the upstart Detroit Lions. That's only a footnote in the end, of course, because they won the last game that we all saw.
As the 2024 season kicks off, the Chiefs are looking to win a third straight Super Bowl. They will do so with two of the most famous players in the league. When you talk to that person who probably watched the first game of the NFL season, they will probably have an opinion about Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
In today's Kanefabe newsletter:
Things that are unpredictable, from the outcomes of a new NFL season to the combination of factors that come together for individuals to reach levels of fame that transcend the world of sports.
I'm glad you're here. On we go.
Megastars you didn't see coming
Here's a fun way to start a post that's running on the day that the NFL season starts: let's talk about Caitlin Clark.
You know how I know that Caitlin Clark has reached that different level of fame? Because I know there's a good chance that the mere mention of her name will make someone mad.
Clark is a great example of how hard it is to predict the athletes who will become megastars. Through some combination of her incredible talent, a style of play and outside shooting that was new to women's basketball, and arriving at the right moment at the right time, Clark has established herself as the new most famous women's player ever.
I think I see the prominence of Patrick Mahomes following a similar arc. Or, perhaps given the respective career accomplishments of both, it would be more fair to say that Clark followed a similar arc to Mahomes and that she can only hope to reach similar heights in terms of championships and individual accolades.
The path to fame was more obvious for Mahomes. It is for any NFL player. If you're the best in that league, with all of the eyes on it, you will become a celebrity. Mahomes went to Texas Tech, and he was relatively unheralded entering the league.
None of that matters now. He plays on the level of the all-time greats. If health and other things work out for him over the next many years, he might garner consideration as the best to ever play quarterback.
You want to talk about making people mad?
It would discount Travis Kelce's Hall of Fame career as a tight end to say that he's only this famous because he is dating Taylor Swift. He did have a moderately popular podcast, after all, in addition to his football accomplishments.
That podcast is now far more popular.
Anyway, Travis Kelce is probably only this famous because he is dating Taylor Swift.
The megastars we did see coming (or thought we did)
Think about how long LeBron James has been in our lives.
His high school games were on ESPN before that was a thing. As a teenager, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated back in the days when that was a huge day. For the last 20+ years, he has been one of the most famous people in the world. And we knew it was coming.
It's still about some combination of factors coming together, even for someone like LeBron. He has reached his status with his otherworldly talent and career, his interests and charisma outside basketball, and his willingness to speak up about issues. There's more to it than that list, but the point is this: the stage was set for his fame, but it still required a combination of things coming together.
Aaron Judge should be this kind of famous, I think, even with the declining popularity of baseball. He plays for the New York Yankees. He has a distinct attribute in that he is a huge man, a player who looks larger than life in a sport that loves to talk about being larger than life.
Judge is not a megastar, not like the others discussed here. When he posed for pictures with Caitlin Clark, he was decidedly the second most famous player pictured.
Is it because Judge is unassuming and gives boring quotes? Maybe? But Derek Jeter did those things, and he's that next level of famous. Maybe that speaks to that combination of factors that needs to come together. Maybe the decline in baseball popularity is what makes the situation different for Judge or Shohei Ohtani, who would be one of the biggest megastars we've ever seen if baseball was more prominent.
As it is, Ohtani is that level of famous worldwide, just not in the loud way that others are with American fans.
The start of the season
The Baltimore Ravens kick off the 2024 season against the Chiefs on Thursday night. It's a significant game, an important match-up between two teams expected to compete for a championship this season. The Ravens are a noteworthy franchise, a good team that has been good for a while now.
A ton of people would watch the first NFL game regardless. More serious fans would take an interest in Baltimore's side of the equation. But ultimately, this game will feel just a little bit bigger because of the Chiefs and their goofball duo of megastars.
Any piece of monoculture is so rare anymore. The NFL is the rare institution that can deliver those products. Thursday's game will be just that much bigger because of Mahomes and Kelce.
