Christen Harper, fiancée of Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, says she receives death threats on social media after Goff’s losses.
“I get the most death threats after a loss, my DMs just blow up with, like, crazy stuff,” Harper says in an interview with ESPN’s Rachel DeMita on DeMita’s podcast, Courtside Club.
Harper, a model who appeared in this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, said she’s had to learn how to deal with inflammatory comments from football fans on social media.
“People can be crazy, people can be mean, and I think what I’ve learned is to just not listen,” she says. “At the end of the day it’s a game, and of course it’s important; for us it’s our life, and it’s his life. But all those other people there, they’re just there for entertainment. And they’re gonna say things, and they’re drunk, and they’re whatever. So what I’ve learned is to kind of block out that noise and try to enjoy the moment because it only lasts for so long.”
Harper says fans were particularly harsh on her after a video was posted of her reacting to the Detroit Lions’ first win of the season last year while she was on a beach in Barbados in the midst of an SI shoot.
“There’s this video of me that went viral, the Lions had their first win, and that comment section, the whole thing was like, ‘if she really was a fan she would have been at the game.’ And it’s like dude, I can’t win,” the 29-year-old says. “Because if I was at the game, they’d be saying, like, ‘you’re a gold digger, all you’re doing is following your boyfriend around.’ So you really can’t win. If you’re at the game, you’re too invested, that’s your whole life. If you’re not there, you’re not supportive. So as women, it’s like impossible to win, because they’re always going to say something you’re doing is wrong. It’s crazy.”
Harper says she was “so mad” to have missed that game, a 29-27 win over the Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field, which marked Goff’s first win with the team and the team’s first win in nearly a full calendar year.
“I was living out my dream, meanwhile he’s living out his dream. It was such a magical thing that was happening at the same time, but people just couldn’t see that,” she says. “They were like she doesn’t care, she’s at a beach somewhere.”
Harper, a Southern California native, also talks about the influence of Kate Upton on her modeling career and her social media presence (she has 437,000 followers on Instagram), as well as adjusting to Michigan weather.
“It was a lot better than I thought it would be,” she says. “I actually figured out why people love seasons. I never got that , but now I get it. The summer and fall there is like so beautiful you almost can’t beat it. And then winter I weirdly, like, loved. The first snow was truly amazing, and then you just bundle up.”
Harper and Goff shared news of their engagement in June. The pair has been dating since 2019.