Look who won when ESPN Rated the NFL’s Greatest Fans: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/preview08 … id=3530077
I like their rating system:
Stadium factor (St.): Loud? Great atmosphere?
Ever been to Heinz Field? Like Three Rivers of old, it is an energetic place with energetic fans.
Live and die factor (LDF): Fans take loss hard? (That’s a good thing.)
You don’t even want to be around our house when they lose.
Traveling road show factor (Travel): Big presence in other guys’ stadium?
If I am not mistaken, there’ve been games on the west coast where there were more Steeler fans than any other kind.
Loyalty when team sucks (Loyal): You score points with us if you stick with a loser.
We’ve stuck with them through thick and thin. Anyone remember the early eighties?
Hate factor (Hate): Other teams’ fans dislike your fans? (Hate is good in our book.)
They only hate us because our team is better than their loser team!
Tailgate factor (TG): Home tailgates sizzling or stale?
It’s hard to tailgate in my family room, but I am glad for those who do!
Home fans’ creativity (CF): Wacky ideas – or not?
Have you seen that steel guy who looks like a borg?
It’s almost time to GO STILLERS!
I don’t know. If the Hate Factor is important, that alone should push the Pats to #1. And the Borg looks a little too much like a Raider fan for my liking.
GO STILLERS!
We should get together for a game or two. Because I still haven’t rebuilt my antenna yet.
A RAIDER FAN? No way! Raiders are pirates, not steel men. Plus, how could a Raider have that many superbowl victories down his arm?
It’s easy for Steelers’ fans to be rated #1 because you so frequently have something to cheer about.
“Loyalty through the early eighties?!” Try being loyal through the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and into the third millennium!
But how about those Detroit Lions – undefeated in the pre-season
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=27296090
The Detroit Lions were the only NFL team to finish the pre-season undefeated at 4-0.
They say, of course, that the pre-season doesn’t mean anything.
-You can say that if your team has ever won a Super Bowl.
-You can say that if your team has ever been in a Super Bowl.
-You can say that if your team is regularly in the playoff hunt.
-You can say that if your team regularly has winning seasons.
-You can say that if your team isn’t regularly an embarassment.
As for me, I am going to celebrate that the Detroit Lions went 4-0 in the pre-season.
Go Matt Millen!
the loud stadium comment reminded me of something from Saturday.
Penn State (yes, I know) was playing Coastal Carolina. In practicing over the past year, CC tried to get as much noise as possible in their stadium to simulate Beaver Stadium. One of the players had the opportunity to attend a game at Beaver Stadium. He came home and said, “Coach, we’re not even close.”
😀
Must be a Pennsylvania thing.
And yet this is your #1 fan: http://sports.espn.go.com/travel/news/story?id=3535064
A bandwagon fan from the 70’s, who scaled back in the 90’s.
The Detroit Lions fan is clearly better http://sports.espn.go.com/travel/news/story?id=3535044
If we could just get rid of Millen…
Love the loud fans at Beaver Stadium. Hate the screaming cat on the PA. It’s so fakey! (Is that a word? It should be.)
By the way, why is a school of 7,000 students placed in competition with a school of 43,000 students?
Who is arranging that match-up? No one with a sense of parity, huh? Someone with a sense of profiteering, though! And they say the NFL is all about money!!! Welcome to the NCAA!
Dan — I love the knickers! It’s almost a kilt!
Here’s hopin’ the Lions don’t get kilt again this season. (Bad. Bad pun. I am sorry.)
You should be. 😛
Well, the same people who came up with PSU vs. CC also came up with Michigan Vs. Appalacian State, and we all know how THAT turned out. Oh, and they got “kilt” again against Utah State. I find that extremely funny.
Yeah. Whodathunkit?
Yeah, couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch. Sorry, Ledford. This is the year we finally get you!!
Teams like Coastal Carolina go up against Div I-A schools for a lot of good reasons, all in their favor. It’s a good way to build your program- the other teams in your conference don’t seem so tough when you’ve played against a powerhouse. CC probably got $1M for the deal, which they won’t turn down. And last, it’s a gift to the players. There’s almost 0% chance they’ll be playing football after their college career, so they’ll never get to play in such an exciting atmosphere with 100K+ people in attendance and millions more watching on TV.
The only ones who really lose out are the Lions, who don’t have much to gain. If they lose, they look like Michigan and totally tank their season. If they win, they don’t gain anything in the rankings. If they really wanted to be playing for the national title, they would be getting non-conference I-A games on the schedule at this point and hoping they’d win. There are plenty of teams that forego the patsies and hope it pays off. Utah comes to mind.
I agree with your first paragraph, Matt, but not the second.
It was always my understanding that the point of having “no name” teams the first couple of games was to help teams like Michigan and Penn State to see where they are in regards to what needs work. For example, Penn State is breaking in new(er) quarterbacks and Michigan is breaking in a new head coach. All the practice in the world doesn’t really tell you where your weaknesses are, until you play a couple real games. So it really is a win-win situation. Coastal Carolina gets attention, experience and, most importantly, money, while Penn State gets to get a good, hard look at what needs work and will (hopefully) actually work on that in the next two weeks before their first conference game.
Pastor Steve…notice how we went from talking Steelers to talking Penn State? *laughing*
Wendy — that makes sense — that it’s like preseason.
I can’t wait for tonight when the NFL opens their season. Eli is on my FF team. GO GIANTS!