Houston Texans Rank a Lowly 24th in Latest ESPN Popularity Poll

the franchise is like 10 yrs old, be patient. Ravens, Jaguars, Panthers are low for the same reason.

 

A 10 year old franchise with a lifetime record of 65-95 and only 1 playoff appearance did as good or better in terms of popularity than 10 other NFL teams? Wow.

 

I didn't see the original ESPN link in the article so:
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/59058/where-every-nfl-team-ranks-in-popularity

I'm not surprised, I'm not offended:

It's sports, not music or movies or TV shows: fans largely are defined by where they live, how they were raised, or who's been dominant in recent years.

-Look at the top 10: all of those teams have been around for decades and have massive national fanbases. Those are the teams whose fans invade visiting stadiums every road game, whose fans are the multi-generational, fanatical, house-decorated diehard lifers. Let's not pretend the Texans have any business pretending to be on that level.

-The Cowboys top the list at under 9% - not that ridiculous since 100/32 - 3% if it was an even distribution. Only the top 10 teams get above that 3% mark.

-Now look at the bottom ten teams: dominated by the expansion and relocated squads (Browns a strange exception from the bottom group since they are an anti-expansion team).

I look at it and think the Texans don't come off half bad - they're at the top of that bottom tier (along with the Ravens), despite having the least history in the league. I'd feel like crap if I were an Atlanta or Cincy fan - that's damning to fall that low.

It's a truth about pro sports - it's damn near impossible for expansion teams to get out of the shadow of the old school storied franchises, and it seems to go triple for football.

 

Before last year they were among the worst franchises in all of sport. They were in clippers/pirates/Bengals territory.

Here is the whole list. Usually the teams that win more are more popular except the falcons, but they play in Atlanta.


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<table class="tableizer-table">
<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Rank</th><th>Team</th><th>Pct.</th></tr> <tr><td>1</td><td>Cowboys</td><td>8.8</td></tr> <tr><td>2</td><td>Packers</td><td>7.2</td></tr> <tr><td>3</td><td>Giants</td><td>7.1</td></tr> <tr><td>4</td><td>Steelers</td><td>7.1</td></tr> <tr><td>5</td><td>Patriots</td><td>6.8</td></tr> <tr><td>6</td><td>Bears</td><td>4.2</td></tr> <tr><td>7</td><td>Saints</td><td>4.1</td></tr> <tr><td>8</td><td>49ers</td><td>4.0</td></tr> <tr><td>9</td><td>Eagles</td><td>3.9</td></tr> <tr><td>10</td><td>Broncos</td><td>3.8</td></tr> <tr><td>11</td><td>Colts</td><td>2.8</td></tr> <tr><td>12</td><td>Raiders</td><td>2.5</td></tr> <tr><td>13</td><td>Redskins</td><td>2.4</td></tr> <tr><td>14</td><td>Vikings</td><td>2.2</td></tr> <tr><td>15</td><td>Lions</td><td>2.2</td></tr> <tr><td>16</td><td>Dolphins</td><td>1.9</td></tr> <tr><td>17</td><td>Chiefs</td><td>1.6</td></tr> <tr><td>18</td><td>Seahawks</td><td>1.6</td></tr> <tr><td>19</td><td>Jets</td><td>1.5</td></tr> <tr><td>20</td><td>Chargers</td><td>1.5</td></tr> <tr><td>21</td><td>Browns</td><td>1.4</td></tr> <tr><td>22</td><td>Bills</td><td>1.4</td></tr> <tr><td>23</td><td>Ravens</td><td>1.3</td></tr> <tr><td>24</td><td>Texans</td><td>1.2</td></tr> <tr><td>25</td><td>Buccaneers</td><td>1.2</td></tr> <tr><td>26</td><td>Falcons</td><td>1.2</td></tr> <tr><td>27</td><td>Titans</td><td>1.1</td></tr> <tr><td>28</td><td>Panthers</td><td>1.0</td></tr> <tr><td>29</td><td>Cardinals</td><td>0.8</td></tr> <tr><td>30</td><td>Bengals</td><td>0.8</td></tr> <tr><td>31</td><td>Rams</td><td>0.7</td></tr> <tr><td>32</td><td>Jaguars</td><td>0.4</td></tr></table>

 

doesn't the franchise's name, at least in part, inhibit NATIONAL popularity?

I remember McNair saying, "We'll let the Cowboys be America's Team. We want to be Texas' team."

 

lol, jags.

 

I quit caring about this kind of stuff years ago.

 

The Bengals and Falcons did pretty bad, but I have to LOL @ the Titans. For a 50+ year old franchise, that is pathetic. Especially considering all the success they saw after they relocated and changed names.

The Saints thing also screams bandwagon. You couldn't find somebody openly cheering for the Saints up until about 3-4 years ago.

 

Bum Phillips said that about the Oilers, not sure if McNAir did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.A._Phillips

Bum is the man

 

I'd say it's not really significant.

Yankees, Cowboys, Lakers.

All names that have regional limitations on them, all incredibly popular.

Coincidentally, they all win a whole hell of a lot, too.

 

Interesting that the top 4 teams on this list have, for the most part, been wearing the same uniforms for the last 60+ years. That should tell you something.

Pick a uniform and stick with it.

 

If this was done before the 2009 season, would the Saints have been bottom 5?

 

No, they weren't. It's been 10 years. The Clippers are in the territory they're in because of consistent failures over a much longer stretch than a decade. You don't get to be one of the "worst franchises in sport" by one bad decade, especially when it's an expansion team.

The flip side of that, of course, is that it takes much longer than 10 years to create a brand identity on a national scale. It's way too soon to take these types of polls to mean much for the Texans as a franchise.

 

I'm surprised the Jets and Ravens aren't more popular. I mean, the fact that the Ravens are only one slot above us, and have one of the most recognizable defenses in NFL history says something......

The Texans are actually doing quite well, in my opinion. And after some sustained success, their popularity only stands to go up.

 

Meaningless trivia. If it mattered the Cowboys would have won the SuperBowl. They have been awful for years.

 

I have my own poll, where the Patriots rank 30th in popularity amongst Houstonians living in Houston.

Eh, Texans are one of the best franchi$e$ in the world in all sports and that's with a lot of sucking during the 200os.






Historically though, (minus the aints, who should be at least 16th) the top of the list makes sense. I would say oakland should replace the saints and the Patriots, the redsox are more popular. that's all i have to say about that.

 

Who cares. ESPN probably asked about 50 people and they put those stats out there like it means something. Once we finish 12-4 we will get plenty of bandwagon hoppers.

 

One of these regional names does not fit.

 

you don't know about Lake Hollywood?