While many NFL stars dominate on the football field, it’s their wives, fiancées and girlfriends who often run the show at home.
Fans have since referred to this elite group of women as “WAGs,” a shorthand for “wives and girlfriends” that grew in popularity thanks to E!’s three-season WAGS docuseries in 2015. Netflix went on to launch its W.A.G.s. to Riches series in 2025, further propelling the notoriety of the moniker. Many of the women themselves, however, seldom use the label.
“I don’t like it because I think it has a serious negative connotation attached,” Kylie Kelce, who has been married to retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce since 2018, said on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in February 2025. “I think it’s the suggestion that your spouse’s profession swallows you up, as well.”
She added, “Both Jason and I have made a serious effort to make sure that, while he was playing, it was clear that was his job in the same way that someone would go to work and come home and not necessarily talk about their entire day [of] filing taxes and doing spreadsheets.”
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Kylie is not alone in her hesitance to call herself a “WAG.” Keep scrolling for more NFL partners’ thoughts about the term:
Kelly Stafford
Kelly has been married to Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford since 2015 after initially meeting in college at the University of Georgia.
“I’m indifferent to [the term], it’s kind of whatever,” Kelly said on the “Straight Up With Stassi” podcast in February 2024. “We are. We’re wives and girlfriends of whoever.”
According to Kelly, she’s also never heard another NFL spouse use the term “WAG.”
“I’m really old, so maybe the young girls do,” Kelly said at the time. “I’m by far the oldest one. I think I’m probably the oldest WAG there is, it’s really sad. Welcome to my life, being the old bitch in the room.”
Kylie Cole
Kylie, a pro volleyball player, is also the wife of Las Vegas Raiders punter AJ Cole.
“I know it’s meant to just shorten ‘wives and girlfriends’ because it’s a lot of syllables [and] I get it. But, I can’t take it seriously, like, I’m not going to [say], like, ‘I’m a WAG,’” Kylie said on the “Sunday Sports Club” podcast in October 2024. “Just know if I’m ever using the word ‘WAG’ at all, I’m not being serious.”
She added, “[It] does not refer to the group of girls, like, we’re like, ‘We’re the wives and the girlfriends.’ Or, ‘We’re the women of the Raiders,’ that’s usually what I say. Yesterday we had the Raiders women’s brunch, and so that’s what I’m going to call it — not the ‘WAGs brunch.’ I just can’t. It’s just so cheesy.”
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Allison Kuch
Kuch was by husband Isaac Rochell’s side as he played for the Los Angeles Chargers, Cleveland Browns, Indianapolis Colts and Las Vegas Raiders, respectively, before he retired in 2025.
“The show WAGS came out on E! like two years before Isaac got drafted and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to survive this,’” she said on a February 2025 episode of her “Sunday Sports Club” podcast. “I was like, ‘I’m just going to be transparent. I’ll just sit in the back, but it’s way more common to be chill and relaxed — and [wear] designer every now and then.”
She added, “I’m trying to take back the ‘WAG’ term to not be like uptight and bougie, but, like, chill and low-key.”
Kylie Kelce
Kylie infamously matched with Jason on Tinder during her final year of college after he was drafted by the Eagles. Once it became clear he was The One, she was hesitant to tell her family about his profession due to preexisting stereotypes.
“[There] is that stigma of ‘you’re with them because they make a lot of money’ or you want designer bags or you live in a mansion,” Kylie said on “Call Her Daddy” in 2025. “It’s, like, no.”
She added, “My dad was the last person I wanted to find out because I knew he would be like, ‘You’re not a bimbo.’ His dad [mode] very much overwhelmed the excitement of that [Jason’s] an Eagle. My dad is very much a girl dad, like, protective and going to make sure that you hold yourself the right way. He also always told my sister and I, ‘Don’t ever be dependent on the person you’re with.’”
Kylie works as a high school field hockey coach — she played the sport growing up — before launching her “Not Gonna Lie” podcast in 2024. The podcast quickly became the No. 1 show in the market, even topping Jason and his brother Travis Kelce’s “New Heights.”
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Bryce Watts Hansen
Bryce, whose husband Chad Hansen retired in 2022, said in a January 2025 TikTok video that most NFL wives didn’t claim the term “until a few months ago.”
“It almost took the ‘dirty’ sense out of it,” Bryce said, referring to a then–recent Glamour magazine headline. “I would never say the term ‘WAG’ because it almost felt pretentious in a way. It was like, ‘Who gave you the right [and] the audacity to call yourself that? You’re just there.’”
Bryce had always liked the term because it “summarized” her spouse’s career in just a few letters.
Jackie Tranquill
Jackie said on a 2025 episode of Kuch’s podcast that she was “so nervous” to meet the other NFL partners when her husband, Drue Tranquill, was drafted by the Chargers. (Drue now plays with the Kansas City Chiefs.)
“I thought the ‘WAGs’ were going to be like they are on TV and I was like, ‘I’m not going to fit in,’” Jackie said. “Then, I met everyone and I was like, ‘Oh, y’all are just like me.’ We’re normal people.”
Niki Mailata
Niki is married to Jordan Mailata of the Eagles.
“I say [WAG] even though I, kind of, hate the term,” she said on Kuch’s podcast in 2025. “It’s so much easier to say. … It’s a fun community.”
Kristin Juszczyk
After Kylie Kelce revealed on her podcast in February 2025 that she “doesn’t identify” as a so-called ‘WAG,’ Kristin concurred that the connotation of the term is “tough.” (Kristin has been married to San Francisco 49ers star Kyle Juszczyk since 2019.)
“What I’ve always found so interesting about that word is there’s not a word that describes a lawyer’s wife or any other type of profession,” Kristin said on the February 20, 2025, episode. “For me, I take such pride in what my husband does and I love supporting him; it’s my favorite thing. But, that’s not the only person that I am. I’m my own individual, so that word makes me crawl out of my skin. I think it always has.”
Kristin, a designer known for repurposing NFL gear into chic merch, further praised many NFL spouses for “redefining” the label.
“There’s been so much female empowerment and now I feel honored [to be called a ‘WAG’],” she said. “These women are the backbone of these athletes and they are making everything else spin, so that they can focus only on their careers and being successful on the field. They should be proud of that. … They are holding down the fort, having babies during the season.”
