Bengals QB Jake Browning "Lit the World on Fire" With His Girlfriend Cheering Him On

The Gist:

• Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Jake Browning, who marked his second career start on Dec. 4, 2023, is in a relationship with Stephanie Niles.
• Stephanie is the co-founder of a swimwear brand called 7th Street Swim.

In the NFL, Jake Browning is the talk of the town, now that the quarterback led the Cincinnati Bengals to a 34–31 overtime win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023. Jake has taken over as the starting quarterback following Joe Burrow's injury in Week 11.

“He just lit the world on fire,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor told reporters following the game, per Around the NFL. “I just thought he managed the game beautifully well. He was aggressive with some of his throws, did a great job making plays with his feet … Just really proud of Jake and the job he did.”

And Jake had the support of his girlfriend at Monday’s game, as fans can see on Instagram. Let's get to know Stephanie Niles.

Jake is in a relationship with a woman named Stephanie Niles, who shared an Instagram video of herself jubilantly leaping into Jake’s arms after Monday night’s game — which was only Jake’s second career start. Even sweeter, Stephanie was also wearing a tank top emblazoned with Jake’s name and jersey number.

Stephanie posted another celebratory video on Sept. 26, 2023, after the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Los Angeles Rams. “Wincinnati,” she wrote at the time.

And on Aug. 12, 2023, Stephanie posted a photo of herself in a box at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium as the Bengals faced the Green Bay Packers. “’Tis the (pre)season,” she wrote in that post’s caption.

Jake has done his fair share of Instagram fawning, too. On May 5, he posted a romantic tribute to Stephanie alongside a slideshow of photos from their relationship.

“Remember when we agreed we weren’t going to date?” he wrote in the caption. “Or when we finally started dating, we agreed we were going to break up when you moved to NYC in 2018…? Five years, four different time zones, and 14 different moves later, here we are. Whether it’s a fancy dinner party or a dive bar in Folsom, you move through life with a contagious energy, and I can’t imagine where’d I’d be without my mob wife. Love you, pimp.”

In recent years, Stephanie has devoted social media posts to a company called 7th Street Swim, a clothing brand “where downtown cool meets uptown quality,” as its Instagram profile touts. The website listed on the profile is currently down, but 7th Street Swim is — or, at least, was — a luxury sustainable swimwear label that Stephanie co-founded, according to an Authority Magazine profile posted online in January 2021.

Stephanie gave some of her life story to the magazine, saying that she was born in Hong Kong and that she spent part of her childhood in China. Her family eventually relocated to Seattle, Wash., and she attended the University of Washington. After graduating from the school in 2018, she moved to New York City, where she worked for a Big Four accounting firm.

But Stephanie felt “like a cog in a very large machine” in that line of work, so she quit her job and pursued her dream “to become a household name in sustainable and ethical apparel,” as she told Authority.

“So this is the first step,” she added. “I’m enjoying every second.”