Super Bowl XLVII. Who will YOU be rooting for?
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You know I love me my Ravens. (I predicted a Harbaugh Bowl at the beginning of the playoffs!) And you know I love me some visualized data.
So in honor of my “the in-laws have gone on vacation for 2 weeks leaving me alone to fend for the kids and they’re both driving me CRAZY by not eating or sleeping well and fighting like cats and dogs and the damn car won’t start and it’s too cold/windy/rainy/snowy/icy to take them out without the car and I’m averaging 3 hours of sleep at night so I can’t seem to form a coherent sentence to write in my blog” week…
Here are some nifty maps and charts representing NFL fandom across the country. They’re brought to you by your favorite social media giant, so I’m guessing they have some authority on the subject.
The National Football League is one of the most popular sports in America with some incredibly devoted fans. At Facebook we have about 35 million account holders in the United States who have Liked a page for one of the 32 teams in the league, representing one of the most comprehensive samples of sports fanship ever collected. Put another way, more than 1 in 10 Americans have declared their support for an NFL team on Facebook.
Here’s a map of NFL fans by county. I think it’s safe to say that geography has a lot to do with your favorite sports teams.
A progression of the most “Liked” teams through the 2012-2013 playoffs:
And now, with only two teams remaining for the 2013 world champion title:
I’m not that surprised; the Ravens are one of the most disliked teams in the NFL. (Haters gonna hate!) I don’t mind, because it’s always more fun to root for the underdogs. 🙂
This next chart was more interesting to me, because I only have a handful of friends who are ‘Skins fans and I don’t have a single friend IRL who’s a Cowboys fan! In fact, most of my friends are Giants or Pats fans…but then again, I’m pretty sure this has to do more with my geographic location. I also couldn’t help but notice that the #1 common friends among Ravens fans are Steelers fans. Hello, the greatest rivalry in the NFL?
Lastly, a simple bar graph that demonstrates the prevalence of bandwagon fans:
Hope you enjoyed these as much as I did! And as for Sunday? May the best team — ahem, BALTIMORE! — win!
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I went to UMBC for undergrad, but I was born and raised in MD/VA/DC district. I never really had a favorite team, but the majority of my friends were huge Ravens fans. Even though I will admit to being one of those “bandwagon” fans, I’m so glad that one of the teams in the Super Bowl happens to represent the state I was born and raised in. Go Ravens!!
I started as a Ravens bandwagon fan (they won Super Bowl XXXV when I was in Baltimore for school) and have been since then! I felt a bit weird rooting against the Giants when I was from NY, but the 2000 Ravens defense literally blew them away!
Oh, what school did you attend in Baltimore? Was it for undergrad or grad school?
I went to Hopkins for undergrad….I was in B’more for most of 1999-2007 because I took some time off school then attended part-time, and I ended up staying in the area for my first job (I worked in Columbia).
UGH. There are SO MANY Steelers fans down here in NC, it drives me bonkers! You’ve just reminded me I have to go by Party City and see if they have any Ravens gear for our party on Sunday…. GO RAVENS!!!
Steelers fans in NC? Wow, and I thought it was bad in NJ and NY!
I’m perplexed by more than half of Alaska being Packers fans! Maybe there are lots of Wisconsin transplants…? Huh.
I noticed that too! I was wondering if it had to do with the cold weather, but that would also include the likes of Minnesota and Denver. Now that I think about it, stereotypically, Alaskans seem to have the most in common with Wisconsonians…no?
I honestly know NOTHING about either team, except that there’s a player from my alma mater on the 49ers (the only one from our school to EVER go pro – like seriously, we’re NAIA and our program SUCKS) so I guess that’s who I have to root for! 🙂 Not sure if he’ll even make it off the bench, but there you go. In my real life, I’m sort of a Vikings fan, but I’d really better say a Vikings victim.
That’s so cool — which player? I actually went to the same high school as Ryan Grant (of the Green Bay Packers) but I had no idea who he was until he started playing for the NFL. My sister was the same year as him (one year behind me) and she tells me that he never played football in high school and was on the track team instead. But then again, track was the “cool” sport in our high school (yeah, we were weird). Still, it’s pretty cool to see him in my yearbooks!
Tramaine Brock. He actually started at the University of Minnesota and failed out, then went to Belhaven University (tiny Christian college in MS). Having been a student there in classes with football players, I’m not super surprised that Belhaven let him in after the UofM refused, but it’s really, really impressive that he did manage to make it pro. The president of the school is just beside himself. 🙂