Since the 2020-2021 United States of America National Football League Season is halfway finished, I decided to do a fun little experiment. It's this simple: I look at the team mascot team name(e.g. Lions), and then I research if there are more of that mascot(like Lions) than there are fans of that team(Detroit Lions). How do I determine fanbase? Statista.com does an advanced counting model, which looks at tickets sold, merchandise purchased, social media likes, etc. Then, I figure out which teams have fewer fans than their total namesake.
Let's do this fun experiment.
Buffalo Bills
Name: Origin: Despite the fact their mascot depicts the picture of a bison, the mascot is actually named after Buffalo Bill Cody, the famous soldier for the USA 1860s.
Number of Buffalo Bill Codys: Zero. There was only one Buffalo Bill Cody that we know of, and he passed away in 1917.
Approximate Number of Bills fans: 6 million.
Conclusion: The Buffalo Bills do not have fewer fans than their namesake. Their fans outnumber their namesake at least 6,000,000/0.
Miami Dolphins
Name: Origin: Inspired by the television show Flipper, they named their mascot the dolphins, representing all of the dolphins in the ocean(which makes sense, given Miami, Florida is near the Atlantic Ocean).
Number of Dolphins: Approximately 600,000, according to Seaworld.org.
Approximate Number of Dolphins fans: 3 million.
Conclusion: The Miami Dolphins do not have fewer fans than their namesake. Their fans outnumber their namesake at least 3,000,000/600,000
New England Patriots
Name Origin: It came from the idea of the Boston Globe Cartoonist Phil Bissel. A "patriot" is defined as someone who "vigorously supports, and defends their country, and is prepared to defend it at all costs".
Number of Patriots: This is a tough one, since there are 197 countries, and many countries don't release statistical numbers of what percentage of their country is "patriotic", so since this is regarding NFL Teams(meaning in the USA), we'll go with the number of polled "patriotic" people in the USA. According to a recent Gallup Poll in 2020, 71 percent of USA Adults considered themselves to be at least somewhat "patriotic". According to the U.S. Census Bureau of 2020, there are 281,778,345 adults living in the country. Since 71 percent of those are "patriotic", we have about 200,062,624 patriots living in the country.
Approximate Number of Patriots Fans: 7 million.
Conclusion: The New England Patriots have fewer fans than their namesake. Their namesake outnumbers their fans at least 200,000,000/7,000,000.
New York Jets
Name Origin: Since the original Jets Stadium(the former Shea Stadium) was located near the LaGuardia Airport, they were named after the jets that fly from that airport.
Number of Jets: According to Telegraph.co.uk, there are approximately 23,600 individual aircraft carriers in the world right now. Given this includes all aircraft, the number of jets are significantly lower. At the very most, there are 20,000 jets in the world(and that's a generous estimate).
Approximate Number of Jets Fans: 5 million.
Conclusion: There are not fewer fans than their namesake. Their fans outnumber their namesake by at least 5,000,000/20,000.
Kansas City Chiefs
Name Origin: The mascot is the "K.C. Wolf", and that's entirely random, and is one of the only times in the NFL the mascot doesn't correlate with their team name. Oddly enough, the team was named the "Chiefs" because they considered the former mayor of Kansas City, Missouri(H. Roe Bartle), a "chief", which is very controversial. Then, they decided to honor him by naming him after Native American Chiefs(none of it makes sense).
Number of Native American Chiefs: There are 574 Native American Tribes today, and every tribe has at least one chief. This means, at the most, there are about 1,000 Native American Chiefs living today.
Approximate Number of Chiefs Fans: 2 million.
Conclusion: There are not fewer fans than their namesake, and their fans outnumber their namesake at least 2,000,000/1,000.
Las Vegas Raiders
Name Origin: Unknown. Many people believe they were chosen from a nickname contest in their original city(Oakland), so they named them after a "raider", which is another name for a soldier who invades the enemy's territory. So, basically any soldier.
Number of Raiders: According to Allinallspace.com, there are 30,277,850 soldiers in the world right now.
Approximate Number of Raiders Fans: 3 million.
Conclusion: There are fewer fans than their namesake, and their namesake outnumbers their fans by at least 30,000,000/3,000,000.
Denver Broncos
Name Origin: Denver, Colorado was a pioneer in the "Wild, Wild, West" times, so they named their mascot after "wild horses", which are known as Broncos.
Number of Broncos: According to Nationalgeographic.com, there are about 75,000 Broncos in the world.
Approximate Number of Broncos Fans: 7 million.
Conclusion: There are not fewer fans than their namesake, and their fans outnumber their namesake by at least 7,000,000/75,000.
Los Angeles Chargers
Name Origin: The original Chargers General Manager Frank Leahy liked it when the fans chanted "charge" at sports game, so he named them the "Chargers". According to him, a "charger" is someone who yells "charge" at games, so contrary to popular belief, they're not named after lightning bolts.
Number of Chargers: It's tough to estimate. From what I can research, the "charge" slogan is mainly a slogan for sports in the USA, so we'll just stick with that. According to a 2020 ESPN Poll, there are approximately 200,000,000 sports fans in the USA, and I would guess at least half of them(at the absolutely very least) yelled "charge" consistently at sporting events. This means, there are about 100,000,000 "chargers" in the world.
Number of Chargers fans: 1.5 million.
Conclusion: There are fewer fans than their namesake. Their namesake outnumbers their fans by at least 100,000,000/1,500,000.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Name Origin: The original Steelers owner Art Rooney II decided to pay a homage to the Steel Mill Workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so a "Steeler" is a steel worker.
Number of Steel Workers: According to worldsteel.org, they estimate there are over one billion steel workers living in the world.
Number of Steelers fans: 7 million
Conclusion: There are fewer fans than their namesake. Their namesake outnumbers their fans by at least 1,000,000,000/7,000,000.
Baltimore Ravens
Name Origin: Believe it, or not, they are named specifically after the raven in the Edgar Allan Poe poem titled "The Raven".
Number of ravens in the Poe Poem "The Raven": One(the main character).
Number of Ravens fans: 2.5 million.
Conclusion: There are not fewer fans than their namesake. Their fans outnumber their namesake 2,500,000/1.
Cleveland Browns
Name Origin: They were named after their founder, Paul Brown.
Number of Paul Browns: Given this is a common first, and last name, there are probably a lot of them living today, but the team was specifically named after the Paul Brown who founded them, and he passed away in 1991, so there are now zero of him living.
Number of Browns fans: 3.1 million.
Conclusion: There are not fewer fans than their namesake. Their fans outnumber their namesake by at least 3,100,000/0.
Cincinnati Bengals(my home team!)
Name Origin: At the time, the Cincinnati Zoo was home to a rare white Bengal Tiger living there, so this is where the name came from(yet, the team colors have never been white...).
Number of Bengal Tigers: According to Nationalgeographic.com, there are at least 2,500 Bengal Tigers living in the world.
Approximate number of Bengals fans: 1.9 million(one of the least number of fans for an NFL Team).
Conclusion: Despite our dismal fanbase, there are still not fewer fans than our namesake. The fans still outnumber the namesake(sadly) at least 1,500,000/2,500.
Tennessee Titans
Name Origin: A titan is defined as a "Greek Giant in Greek Mythology, who derived from the parents of Uranus, and Gaea" and according to Greek Mythology, they were common in Athens, Greece, and Nashville, Tennessee used to deem themselves the "Athens of the South". I'm not making this up.
Number of Titans: According to Greek Mythology, there were twelve titans.
Number of Titans fans: 1.7 million.
Conclusion: There are not fewer fans than their namesake. Their fans outnumber their namesake by at least 1,700,000/12.
Indianapolis Colts
Name Origin: When they were founded, they were in Baltimore, Maryland, and the city of Baltimore had a reputation at the time for horse-breeding. A Colt is a defined as a male horse than is uncastrated, and number four years old.
Number of Colts: I can't find a number, or even an estimation anywhere. However, the Food, and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAOUN) estimates there are 58,832,221 total horses. Obviously, a significantly less percentage of those are specifically Colts, so maybe 10,000 Colts at the most.
Number of Colts Fans: 3.5 million
Conclusion: There are not fewer fans than their namesake. The fans outnumber their namesake by at least 3,500,000/10,000.
Houston Texans
Name Origin: It really is as simple as it sounds: Since the Houston Texans are located in the city of Houston in the state of Texas, they are named after the citizens of Texas, who are known as "Texans".
Number of Texans: According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau, there are 29.90 million citizens living the state of Texas.
Number of Texans Fans: 1.8 Million fans.
Conclusion: There are fewer fans than their namesake. The namesake outnumbers the fans by at least 29,900,000/1,800,000.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Name Origin: It was selected in another fan voting contest, and one of the names listed was "Jaguars". Boring.
Number of Jaguars: According to Nationalgeographic.com, there are approximately 15,000 Jaguars living in the world.
Number of Jaguars Fans: 800,000, making it the smallest fan base in the NFL.
Conclusion: Despite having the smallest NFL Fanbase, there are still not fewer fans than their namesake. Their fans outnumber their namesake by at least 800,000/15,000.
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