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He’s the N.F.L. Player. She Gets the Autograph Requests.

By documenting the up-and-down lifestyle of a professional athlete’s wife, Allison Kucharczyk has surpassed the fame of her journeyman husband.

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Isaac Rochell stands behind Allison Kuch. The two are standing atop a large, green lawn.
Allison Kucharczyk shared with her three million TikTok followers that she sobbed when the Las Vegas Raiders released her husband, the defensive lineman Isaac Rochell, several weeks before her due date.Credit...Jackie Russo for The New York Times

As he waited for a call from his agent in September, Isaac Rochell, a professional football player looking for a team, watched the National Football League’s opening weekend games on television with his infant daughter. His wife needed a baby sitter.

Allison Kucharczyk, Rochell’s wife and an online influencer with more than three million TikTok followers, was closer to the field than he was thanks to a partnership with NBC Sports. She was crisscrossing continents on a private jet with other content creators to document a weekend of rowdy tailgates, concession food and stadium environments at N.F.L. games in Kansas City, Mo.; São Paulo, Brazil; and Detroit.

By documenting her lifestyle as a professional athlete’s wife, Kucharczyk has become more famous than Rochell, who reached the highest level of his sport but never became a household name. When together in public, Rochell said, people sometimes ask for Kucharczyk’s autograph instead of his.

“It doesn’t hurt my ego — I’m excited for her — but it was crazy,” said Rochell, a defensive lineman who has played for four N.F.L. teams in seven seasons.

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In September, Kucharczyk documented four days of rowdy tailgates, concession food and stadium environments at N.F.L. games in Kansas City, Mo.; São Paulo, Brazil; and Detroit.Credit...Jackie Russo for The New York Times

As the N.F.L. and its media partners court more female viewers, they are increasingly aligning with the wives and girlfriends of players. (The partnership of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift was inescapable last season.) They hope that prospective fans who are uninterested in sports jargon and players battering one another on the field might instead respond to clothing ensembles and glamorized experiences in luxury suites.


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