I came across an interesting thread on Reddit's NFL subreddit, r/nfl. http://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/15emfa/survey_results/ The survey included 3000 people, and our very own Houston Texans came out as the NFL's most well liked team. Spoiler I have a few theories about this. Firstly, we're not a franchise that is old enough to illicit a lot of strong negative feelings from anyone (the overall responses to the survey were negative, with people "hating" more teams than "liking" them). Secondly, this is a franchise that has lost a lot in it's tenure, building up significant "lovable loser" cache. Also, we're in the middle of a hellacious winning run, which pumps up the bandwagon. And last, the Texans have always prided themselves on being a high character organization, and the personalities on the team are very likable (Foster, AJ, Watt, etc.) Other interesting bits: The Patriots are the most "polarizing" team, having the least amount of "indifferent" fans. The Ravens have the most equal split among the haters and lovers. The Steelers/Cowboys have virtually identical ratings, and virtually identical histories as franchises. The Packers are the most well liked historically successful team. The Redskins and Broncos seem to be riding the wave of the popularity of their newly acquired quarterbacks. The Jaguars had the least amount of "love" ratings. The Jets rank as most hated... why? Pick any number of reasons (Tebow, Ryan, Sanchez, NY market, etc.)
Also, there's an interesting chart showing how much we like/dislike each team. And here's a chart detailing how negative/positive each fanbase is in its ratings of the rest of the NFL teams. The Texans fans rank 13st most positive (least negative?) there.
when you battlefight for the people, they will love you. Once we build our own empire of the dynasty kinds, they will turn on us! Good to know other fans love us. Glad someone does, some houstonians don't.
another trivial incorrect poll with inaccurate results. the city of houston doesnt even like the texans. texans have too much oiler in them for them to be liked so much. i mean how could we be the most well liked? we choke all the time in prime time games (due to the stupidity of kubiak and the immobility and also stupidity of matt schaub) and we have been the sexy off season pick to do well only to disappoint time and again. we are on course again this year.
Just from talking from people around different parts of the country, I think part of the reason is that we have a history of players that are popular with fantasy football folks.
How is it inaccurate? People were asked to vote, and these are the results. Pretty simple. Has nothing to do with how good the team is, just how well liked.
Meh, give it time and few winning seasons, this is likely to change. But our most controversial star players are Antonio Smith and Arian Foster, neither of which are bad guys and pretty playful so outside of Titans or maybe Colts fans who would really have reason to hate this team? Man, there are more reasons to hate Derrick Rose then there are Aaron Rogers. If Drew Brees and Peyton Manning weren't in the league and doing great for longer I can't think of a QB that would be more likeable.
Maybe I'm misreading the chart, but it looks like the Cowboys are more hated by about 8% than the Jets, and evoke more negative reactions (hate + dislike) by a smidge. The Jets have many fewer likes/loves, but the Cowboys are the most hated team in the poll.
