Most Popular NFL Teams and Football Player

Most Popular NFL Teams

Being an NFL fan is a tough, often thankless endeavor.

You pour your heart and soul into your team’s fortunes, and unless you’re the lucky group whose team is holding the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the year, you dealt with some level of disappointment along the way. Watching your team battle through injuries, bad luck, bad calls and more is tough emotional business.

Oh, and there’s always the looming threat of relocation unless you pony up cash for a new stadium every 25 years or so. Still, some fans do a better job than others at managing all the stresses of fandom and cheering for their guys until the end.

NFC Teams

Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Dallas Cowboys
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Washington Football Team

AFC Teams

Baltimore Raven
Buffalo Bills
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Kansas City Chiefs
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Miami Dolphins
New England Patriots
New York Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers
Tennessee Titans

let’s rank all 32 NFL fan bases, worst to first

Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team is headquartered in Frisco, Texas, and plays its home games at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, which opened for the 2009 season. The stadium took its current name prior to the 2013 season.

In January 2020 it was announced that Mike McCarthy had been hired as head coach of the Cowboys. He is the ninth in the team’s history. McCarthy follows Jason Garrett, who coached the team from 2010–2019.

Except I think we’re all rooting for Dak Prescott to return to his amazing self, and there might not be a more deadly offensive group than this one. Who cares if the defense gives up a ton of points again? High-scoring games are the best to watch.

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that Cowboys fans are more as advertised than they are a creation of Jerry Jones’ hype machine.

Unlike Steelers fans, Cowboys fans reliably fill the stadium game after game. These same fans haven’t had nearly as much to cheer about for about two decades, but they still rabidly consume everything associated with the team. They are nearly as widespread as Steelers fans, but that’s more because they became a “national” team than any sort of population exodus from Big D. If I had a complaint with Cowboys fans, it would be that they’ve almost become too cosmopolitan and a little too content with the team’s failings. But every time I start to think that, I hop onto Twitter and see fans in a full-fledged meltdown about Dak Prescott, or Jones’ latest brush with headlines, thus renewing my faith in the idea that though they might be glitzy and glamorous, Cowboys fans are just as nuts as the rest of us, if not more so.

The Cowboys are enjoying their bye week before preparing for a Week 8 Sunday Night Football matchup vs. the Vikings.

Dallas Cowboys Player

Bradlee Anae
Bryan Anger
Dorance Armstrong
Tarell Basham
Tyler Biadasz
Quinton Bohanna
Anthony Brown
Noah Brown
Corey Clement
La’el Collins
Amari Cooper
Jabril Cox
Trevon Diggs
Ezekiel Elliott
Matt Farniok
Simi Fehoko
Luke Gifford
Chauncey Golston
C.J. Goodwin
Randy Gregory
Will Grier
Malik Hooker
Blake Jarwin
Azur Kamara
Damontae Kazee
Jayron Kearse
CeeDee Lamb
Jourdan Lewis
Zack Martin
Connor McGovern
Jake McQuaide
Israel Mukuamu
Keanu Neal
Ty Nsekhe
Osa Odighizuwa
Micah Parsons
Tony Pollard
Dak Prescott
Cooper Rush
Dalton Schultz
Tyron Smith
Jeremy Sprinkle
Terence Steele
Malik Turner
Leighton Vander Esch
Carlos Watkins
Donovan Wilson
Connor Williams
Ced Wilson
Nahshon Wright
Greg Zuerlein
Lirim Hajrullahu
Isaiah Johnson
Isaac Alarcon
Kyron Brown
Ian Bunting
Deante Burton
Aviante Collins
Tyler Coyle
Ben DiNucci
Austin Faoliu
Robert Foster
Justin Hamilton
JaQuan Hardy
Braylon Jones
Osirus Mitchell
Nick Ralston
Damion Ratley
Brandon Smith
Breeland Speaks
Darian Thompson
Trysten Hill
Josh Ball
Maurice Canady
Rico Dowdle
Neville Gallimore
Mitch Hyatt
Demarcus Lawrence
Hunter Niswander

The Dallas Cowboys have an alarming number of Facebook fans at a staggering number of 8.37 million people.

They also have a solid Twitter following of 3.9 loyal followers, which is second only to the New England Patriots.

The Cowboys stifle the competition in categories regarding financial success via fan spending, having reported an annual revenue of 800 million dollars, leaving a minimum of 300 million dollars between the Cowboy’s annual revenue and any other NFL team.

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New England Patriots

The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area.

The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team plays its home games at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is 22 miles (35 km) southwest of downtown Boston.

Along with the Carolina Panthers, it is one of only two NFL teams to represent multiple states.

Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, the team was a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) before joining the NFL in 1970 through the AFL–NFL merger. The Patriots played their home games at various stadiums throughout Boston until the franchise moved to Foxborough in 1971.

As part of the move, the team changed its name to the New England Patriots. Home games in Foxborough were played at Foxboro Stadium from 1971 through 2002 when the stadium was demolished in conjunction with the opening of Gillette Stadium. The team began utilizing Gillette Stadium for home games the same year.

Always near the top as long as Bill Belichick is at the helm. This year, though? We’ve got rookie Mac Jones as the starting QB. You know you’re going to watch to see if he’s the next TB12. And while there’s not as much hate-watching as there was in the Tom Brady era, it’s still there.

Patriots fans are not great fans and, in fact, are not even good fans.

I can’t put them any lower on this list because they do all of the things that fans are nominally supposed to do. But I want to. They cheer for their team, they dutifully yell when the other team has the ball and they log on to social media to make fools of themselves defending “their guys.”

But make no mistake: This is a spoiled, delusional fan base that has somehow convinced itself that the league is out to get it. Yes, the fans that benefited from the Tuck Rule, from the protective aura the league mandated be placed around Tom Brady and from some particularly lenient officiating in the secondary whenever they had to face Peyton Manning. Let’s say Scott Zolak and a bunch of other anonymous nobodies had quarterbacked the team for the last 20 years, and it had no Super Bowls.

Would anyone in the New England region care about this team? I’ll answer that question for you: No. A 19-year-old second base prospect for the PawSox would get more attention. Patriots fans can whine all they want about this and scream about having six titles until they’re blue in the face, but that won’t change the truth: They’re phonies, and deep down they know it.

The Patriots once again asserted their dominance over the Jets with a 54-13 win over their AFC East foe on Sunday.

Rookie quarterback Mac Jones topped the 300-yard mark for the first time in his young NFL career while tossing two touchdown passes. Wide receiver Kendrick Bourne added a TD pass of his own on a trick play while running backs Damien Harris and J.J. Taylor added two TDs apiece.

New England Patriots Player

Nelson Agholor
David Andrews
Devin Asiasi
Jake Bailey
Christian Barmore
Ja’Whaun Bentley
Justin Bethel
Brandon Bolden
Kendrick Bourne
Myles Bryant
Yodny Cajuste
Joe Cardona
Jamie Collins
Carl Davis
Cody Davis
Kyle Dugger
Yasir Durant
James Ferentz
Nick Folk
Davon Godchaux
Lawrence Guy
Damien Harris
N’Keal Harry
Hunter Henry
Justin Herron
Dont’a Hightower
Brian Hoyer
J.C. Jackson
Jakob Johnson
Mac Jones
Matt Judon
Ted Karras
Brandon King
Shaq Mason
Devin McCourty
Jakobi Meyers
Jalen Mills
Calvin Munson
Gunner Olszewski
Mike Onwenu
Ronnie Perkins
Adrian Phillips
Matthew Slater
Jonnu Smith
Rhamondre Stevenson
Jahlani Tavai
J.J. Taylor
Josh Uche
Kyle Van Noy
Shaun Wade
Joejuan Williams
Deatrich Wise
Isaiah Wynn
Elijah Benton
DeVante Bausby
Tashawn Bower
Sean Davis
Daniel Ekuale
Garrett Gilbert
Drake Jackson
Matt LaCosse
Ben Mason
Bill Murray
Tre Nixon
Riley Patterson
Brian Poole
Alex Redmond
D’Angelo Ross

The New England Patriots, a close second to the Cowboys in their social media following

, boast an astounding figure of 4.5 million Twitter followers (the most of any NFL team) and 6.8 million Facebook fans.

They also come second to the Cowboys in both financial categories, with a 478 million dollar revenue and 4.4 billion franchise value. The Patriots have their large success and victory streak over the years to thank for this number two spot on the list, having the most Super Bowl wins of any team in the NFL.

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Philadelphia Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays its home games at Lincoln Financial Field.

The Eagles trailed the Raiders 30-7 before the offense finally decided to wake up in the fourth quarter. By that point, it was far too late as Vegas earned the 33-23 win. To make matters worse for Philly, running back Miles Sanders exited with an ankle injury.

A fan base’s street cred immediately goes through the roof when stories abound about a jail inside the stadium.

The Vet had that, and Lincoln Financial Field does too. And Eagles fans make great use of it when they’re not berating opposing fans, opposing players, or Eagles players or fellow fans. Really, they just like to boo and yell.

It pains me to admit this, as a Penn State grad who had to tolerate Eagles fans for four straight years, but these are very good, very loyal, possibly insane and occasionally criminal fans. They are demanding, they are impatient, they are unreasonable, but they love the Eagles, and that’s obvious long before you walk into the stadium. Some of the things they do are legitimately ugly, but by and large this is a group that just loves its team and really hopes it beats yours.

They also hold their team to a very high standard and are famously unafraid to boo them mercilessly and turn on them. There was the thought that finally winning the big one and experiencing success would soften theses fans, but thankfully, they’re right back to their usual ornery selves.

I’ll tune in to see if Jalen Hurts is a starting quarterback, sure. And Devonta Smith might be fun to watch.

Philadelphia Eagles Player

Jack Anderson
J.J. Arcega-Whiteside
Genard Avery
Derek Barnett
Shaun Bradley
Andre Chachere
Fletcher Cox
Landon Dickerson
Andre Dillard
Jack Driscoll
T.J. Edwards
Jake Elliott
Marcus Epps
Kenneth Gainwell
Dallas Goedert
Tay Gowan
Javon Hargrave
Anthony Harris
Nate Herbig
Jalen Hurts
Tarron Jackson
Lane Johnson
Patrick Johnson
Jason Kelce
Ryan Kerrigan
Rick Lovato
Avonte Maddox
Jordan Mailata
Mac McCain III
Rodney McLeod
Zech McPhearson
Gardner Minshew
Steven Nelson
Sua Opeta
Jalen Reagor
Hassan Ridgeway
Miles Sanders
Boston Scott
Josiah Scott
Alex Singleton
Reid Sinnett
Arryn Siposs
Darius Slay
DeVonta Smith
Jack Stoll
Josh Sweat
Davion Taylor
Brett Toth
Marlon Tuipulotu
Greg Ward
Quez Watkins
Milton Williams
Eric Wilson
Christian Elliss
Nick Eubanks
Michael Jacquet
Obi Melifonwu
Casey Tucker
Michael Walker
Kayode Awosika
Deon Cain
Le’Raven Clark
John Hightower
Jordan Howard
Jason Huntley
Craig James
KeeSean Johnson
Matt Leo
Cameron Malveaux
Jared Mayden
Elijah Riley
Richard Rodgers
JaCoby Stevens
Noah Togiai
Raequan Williams
Marvin Wilson
Brandon Brooks
Jason Croom
Brandon Graham
Joe Ostman
Isaac Seumalo
Tyree Jackson
K’Von Wallace
Harry Crider
Joe Flacco
Travis Fulgham

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The Philadelphia Eagles boast a massive Twitter following of 3.4 million followers and a Facebook following of .

The Eagles report an annual revenue of 371 million dollars (which is neck and neck with many NFL teams after the Cowboys and Patriots) and a franchise value of 3.4 billion dollars.

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The team plays its home games at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, located 38 miles (61 km) southeast of San Francisco in the heart of Silicon Valley. Since 1988, the 49ers have been headquartered in Santa Clara. The name “49ers” comes from the prospectors who arrived in Northern California in the 1849 Gold Rush.

The calls for Trey Lance will get louder after Jimmy Garoppolo committed three turnovers (two interceptions and a lost fumble) in the 49ers ugly home loss to the Colts on Sunday night. But San Francisco’s defense also allowed 30 points in a driving rainstorm. Not good.

This was a tough group to place.

The 49ers play their games approximately 50 miles from downtown San Francisco

, which makes attendance at Levi’s Stadium a hard thing to quibble about.

The worst Niners fans get into parking lot altercations and conduct themselves like schoolyard bullies, or worse. The rest of the fans are pretty good though. They seem to genuinely care about the team, and should have good reason to after last year’s Super Bowl near-miss. Though this year’s team has already been gutted by injuries, the 49ers should be good for the foreseeable future, which means Niners fans should climb this list.

They are happy when the team is good, and they actually get mad when they’re not doing well. That’s a plus, for our purposes.

Another asterisk for Trey Lance — when he’s in, it’s going to be so exciting. But even without him, they’re a blast with Kyle Shanahan’s offense in place.

San Francisco 49ers Player

Tyrell Adams
Brandon Aiyuk
Azeez Al-Shaair
Arik Armstead
Aaron Banks
Travis Benjamin
Nick Bosa
Jake Brendel
Daniel Brunskill
Trenton Cannon
Tom Compton
Ross Dwelley
Samson Ebukam
Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles
Dee Ford
Jimmy Garoppolo
Marcell Harris
JaMycal Hasty
Talanoa Hufanga
Maurice Hurst
Jauan Jennings
Dontae Johnson
D.J. Jones
Kyle Juszczyk
Zach Kerr
Arden Key
Javon Kinlaw
Dre Kirkpatrick
Trey Lance
Deommodore Lenoir
Alex Mack
Mike McGlinchey
Eli Mitchell
Jaylon Moore
Emmanuel Moseley
Josh Norman
Taybor Pepper
Deebo Samuel
Mohamed Sanu
Trey Sermon
Trent Sherfield
Joey Slye
Kentavius Street
Jaquiski Tartt
Ambry Thomas
Laken Tomlinson
Jimmie Ward
Fred Warner
K’Waun Williams
Trent Williams
Tavon Wilson
Mitch Wishnowsky

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The San Francisco 49ers have 2.1 million Twitter followers and an impressive 3.81 million Facebook fans.

Thanks to their great defensive line, phenomenal coaching staff, and effective quarterback, the 49ers have reached massive popularity.

The franchise rakes in 374 million dollars a year and has a reported total franchise value of 3.8 billion dollars.

New York giants

The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area.

The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays its home games at MetLife Stadium (shared with the New York Jets) in East Rutherford, New Jersey, 5 miles (8 km) west of New York City.

The Giants hold their summer training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center at the Meadowlands Sports Complex.

The Giants earned a 25-3 win over the Panthers as their defense made it a long day for Sam Darnold, who was benched in favor of P.J. Walker. They’ll look to carry that momentum into next week’s Monday Night Football matchup vs. the Kansas City Chiefs, who have struggled mightily this season.

I want to put them lower, I really do.

Big Blue fans are just Yankees fans who remember that football exists.

However, they are pretty loyal when you get right down to it, and though they are definitely the “snobs” of the New York football scene ( which makes Jets fans the slobs, of course ) their passion is real and their tolerance for bad football minimal.

Giants fans expect the most out of their team, but they also have a good sense of when their guys just don’t have it. As much as any team can in the media cauldron that is New York City, the Giants stay out of the fray. Odell Beckham Jr. made headlines on a semi-regular basis, but even when things are bad, the G-Men never devolve into a sideshow. The only real complaint about this group is that sometimes, the fans could stand to be more rabid. I’ve met Giants fans who live and die with their team, but there’s always a little bit of dignity there. The next few fan bases will show why that isn’t necessarily a compliment.

Trying to find a good way to sum up this team, but I’m having some trouble … oh wait!

New York giants Player

Saquon Barkley
Sam Beal
Devontae Booker
James Bradberry
Ben Bredeson
Gary Brightwell
Cameron Brown
Lorenzo Carter
Carter Coughlin
Keion Crossen
Tae Crowder
Korey Cunningham
Riley Dixon
Nate Ebner
Evan Engram
Graham Gano
Cullen Gillaspia
Mike Glennon
Kenny Golladay
Will Hernandez
Darnay Holmes
Adoree’ Jackson
Austin Johnson
Collin Johnson
Raymond Johnson III
Daniel Jones
Casey Kreiter
Dexter Lawrence
Julian Love
Wes Martin
Xavier McKinney
Azeez Ojulari
Matt Peart
Elijhaa Penny
Dante Pettis
Billy Price
Reggie Ragland
J.R. Reed
Quincy Roche
John Ross
Kyle Rudolph
Logan Ryan
Danny Shelton
Sterling Shepard
Matt Skura
Darius Slayton
Kaden Smith
Nate Solder
Kadarius Toney
Leonard Williams
Oshane Ximines
Cole Banwart
Woodrow Hamilton
Willie Henry
Sam Jones
Dexter Williams
Omari Cobb
Devery Hamilton
Trent Harris
Jonotthan Harrison
Jake Hausmann
Ka’dar Hollman
Derrick Kelly
Niko Lalos
Brian Lewerke
Benardrick McKinney
David Moa
Chris Myarick
Steven Parker
Sandro Platzgummer
David Sills
Travis Toivonen
Jarren Williams
Isaiah Wilson
Aaron Robinson
C.J. Board
T.J. Brunson
Nick Gates
Justin Hilliard

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The New York Giants have 3.71 million followers on Twitter and 1.8 million fans on Facebook.

The franchise reports 350 million dollars in annual revenue, which places it pretty far down the ranked list in yearly income; however, many of the NFL teams are within a few million dollars of each other in this category. Despite the comparable annual revenue, The New York Giants hold the third-largest franchise value, with a stunning 4.3 billion dollar worth.

(NFL) National Football League

The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC).

The NFL is one of the four major North American professional sports leagues, the highest professional level of American football in the world.

The NFL’s eighteen-week regular season runs from early September to early January, with each team playing seventeen games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference (four division winners and three wild card teams) advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, which is usually held on the first Sunday in February and is played between the champions of the NFC and AFC. The league is headquartered in New York City.

NFL Top Players

Top 10 Most Liked Players

(Forbes – NFL.com)

It must be the hair. A Forbes poll found that fans like Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu more than any other NFL player. Which other players earned the good marks?

Troy Polamalu
Drew Brees
Charles Woodson
Peyton Manning
Aaron Rodgers
Rob Gronkowski
Robert Griffin III
Brian Urlacher
Donald Driver
Matthew Stafford

Top NFL Players of 2021

Quarterbacks drive the NFL in every way imaginable.

Now it’s more than ever. It’s why they are pushing back against their employers, with quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson all hinting in the offseason that playing for another team might be a good option.

That’s because their importance and value has never been greater, especially in an era of wide-open football.

My 2021 NFL Top 100 list is just more proof of that.

There are five quarterbacks in the top 10, with Patrick Mahomes at the top. The others are Rodgers, Tom Brady, Wilson and Josh Allen. That doesn’t even include Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, who was a top 10 player last year after earning MVP honors in 2019.

When he was seventh on my list last year, I wrote about how quickly things change in this league. He wasn’t even on the list the year before. This year, that’s Allen of the Buffalo Bills.

He was nowhere on my list last year, even though I thought he had a chance to make big strides in 2020. I just didn’t think he’d make the strides that he did. Now he’s 10th on this list.

I did have a Josh Allen on the list last year — but it was Josh Allen of the Jaguars, who didn’t come close to playing to that level in 2020 as injuries hurt his numbers.

Buffalo’s Allen is now an MVP candidate, even if there are some out there who still wonder if he’s a one-hit wonder. They shouldn’t. He’s a star now, one of the many who make up this list.

In addition to the five quarterbacks in the top 10, there are nine other quarterbacks on the list. That’s a total of 14, or almost half of the starters in the league.

Patrick Mahomes

Kansas City Chiefs QB

Even though he didn’t win a second straight Super Bowl, he’s still the best quarterback in the league. He would be the first pick in any open draft of the league’s players.

Aaron Donald

Los Angeles Rams DE

He was again dominant for the Rams defense, winning Defensive Player of the Year honors for the third time in 2020. He had 13.5 sacks. When he was hurt in the playoff loss to the Packers, you could see the difference in the defense.

Aaron Rodgers

Green Bay Packers QB

Happy in Green Bay or not, the reigning MVP remains one of the league’s best players. I still think he ends up back in Green Bay. Why let him go?

Tom Brady

Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB

Those who doubt him learned another lesson last season: Stop it. He had some rough moments in November, but he was outstanding down the stretch and throughout the playoffs on the way to another Super Bowl victory. He’s the GOAT.

Travis Kelce

Kansas City Chiefs TE

He was second in the league in receiving yards with 1,401 yards, which is amazing for a tight end. He also had 11 touchdown catches on his 105 receptions. He is the best tight end in the league, on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

J. Watt

Pittsburgh Steelers OLB

He led the NFL in sacks with 15 and was the runner-up as Defensive Player of the Year, despite missing one game. He is also a force against the run.

Davante Adams

Green Bay Packers WR

He led the NFL in touchdown catches with 18, even though he had little help from the other receivers opposite him. He averaged 98.1 yards per game, the best in the NFL.

Russell Wilson

Seattle Seahawks QB

He played loose and free early last season and had an MVP start. He cooled some down the stretch, but he remains capable of winning an MVP award.

Myles Garrett

Cleveland Browns DE

He had 12 sacks in 14 games and showed his ability to be a game-changer rushing the passer. If he can play an entire season, he should be a Defensive Player of the Year candidate this season.

Josh Allen

Buffalo Bills QB

In his third season, he blossomed into an MVP candidate. His ability to move and make plays made him a tough quarterback to defend. The biggest growth, though, came from the pocket.