With six Super Bowl championships since the turn of the century, one could certainly argue the New England Patriots have replaced the Dallas Cowboys as America's Team. Heck, even quarterback Tom Brady sold the most NFL merchandise last season. However, when it comes to fan support, nobody does it better than the Cowboys.
Listening to people argue which team has a better fan base is like nails on a chalkboard. There is too much passion there for anybody to budge and admit anyone is better than them at cheering. Thankfully, Emory University Goizueta School of Business Professor Mike Lewis has some new data to rank each NFL team's fans and settle the debate.
The criteria is simple. Lewis bases his ranking on three main criteria — fan equity, social equity and road equity — and he tallies it up. The best part is he does this on an annual basis for all of the NFC and AFC teams.
Bandwagon or not for home games or playoff games, the new rankings are in just in time for the 2019 season.
NFL Fan Rankings
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According to the new study, the Raiders boosted their stock the most this year just before their relocation to Las Vegas, moving up four places, while the Jets saw the biggest dip of fandom at minus-5.
Here is a the full list. These rankings of best fans might absolutely shock you.
1. Dallas Cowboys
2. New England Patriots
3. Philadelphia Eagles
4. New York Giants
5. Pittsburgh Steelers
6. Green Bay Packers
7. Denver Broncos
8. Chicago Bears
9. San Francisco 49ers
10. New Orleans Saints
11. Washington Redskins
12. Indianapolis Colts
13. Atlanta Falcons
14. Miami Dolphins
15. Seattle Seahawks
16. Carolina Panthers
17. Oakland Raiders
18. Baltimore Ravens
19. Buffalo Bills
20. New York Jets
21. Houston Texans
22. Detroit Lions
23. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
24. Minnesota Vikings
25. Arizona Cardinals
26. Los Angeles Chargers
27. Cleveland Browns
28. Cincinnati Bengals
29. Jacksonville Jaguars
30. Tennessee Titans
31. Kansas City Chiefs
32. Los Angeles Rams
That's right, two teams that played for conference titles during last year's playoffs have the worst NFL fan bases, according to the study. The Rams even played in Super Bowl LIII.
Perhaps there is just more drama in Dallas and that's why they continue to rank so high, but, regardless, apparently no NFL fans promote their team's brand more than Cowboys fans in person and on social media, even without a big postseason run recently.
This post was originally published on June 24, 2019.
