What is the most popular NFL team?
With Super Bowl XLIX just around the corner (I’m convinced the Super Bowl is the primary reason some kids still learn roman numerals in grade school), football is on America’s mind. Super Bowl Sunday is an unofficial holiday celebrated by over 100 million people. Think about it: most of us get off from work, the day is spent with family and friends, and there is an acceptable overindulgence of food. That fits the definition of a holiday.
Being back in NYC I am excited to celebrate with other fervent sports fans. Traditionally the big game is watched with a group of friends while sloppily ingesting greasy finger food and cheap beer. Last year, while in Asia, this sadly wasn’t an option. Thirty minutes before the game started, I realized that live-streaming doesn’t reach international borders, and instead I scrambled and eventually found a local Japanese sports bar open at 8AM showing American football. The game ended up being a one-sided match, but I celebrated with a Zima and a chatty backpacking Seahawks fan.
Thinking back to life as an expat football enthusiast got me thinking about other misplaced fans. Even within the U.S, team support isn’t equally distributed across the country. Around 40% of Americans move away from their home state, but I would imagine that sports loyalties are not as mobile. Also, certain teams, by nature of success, pop culture relevance, or other factors, have a broader fanbase than their local geogprahically-based supporters. So which NFL team is actually the most popular?
One way to find out is simply to ask. Surveys have shown the Dallas Cowboys to be the nation’s most popular team for the better part of the last decade. The Cowboys have been dubbed “America’s Team” since the late seventies and backed up the nickname with a successful star-fueled run through the nineties. But with little recent playoff success, the team’s popularity is waning and Peyton Manning’s Broncos have taken over as the country’s darlings. In fact, according to a Public Policy Poll, the Cowboys may even be considered the nation’s least liked team – a love/hate breakdown that Yankees fans are familiar with.
A different and more tech saavy way to look at team support is through social media. While the distribution of fan support mostly falls along expected geographic lines, interesting insights can be drawn from Facebook Likes of people “liking” teams not native to their regions. According to the Facebook data, “some teams, like the Steelers, Cowboys, and Packers, seem to transcend geography, with pockets of fans all over the country.” This is in line with what Vegas has often considered the “public teams” – franchises that people tend to bet on more than others based on popularity, fan support, or reasons outside of gambling prowess.
Being in New York City for the upcoming Super Bowl holiday, I looked to one more metric to define America’s most popular football team: the sports bar. Many bars will associate with a specific team and a Sunday afternoon visit will include obscure-jersey-clad fans from a specific region. Removing the Jets and Giants for obvious reasons, which fans have the most watering holes catering to their needs? According to the BarChannels NYC pub directory, it is a familiar answer: Patriots, Steelers, Packers, and Eagles. This Sunday I will be steering clear of Professor Thom’s and its rowdy Patriots homers.
