Which NFL Fanbase Is the Saddest? A New Study Attempts to Answer
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Michael Lewis and Manish Tripathi, marketing professors and Emory University, have come out with a new study ranking NFL fanbases as happiest/saddest and most stable/unstable. The duo used social media to analyze how each team's fans react after wins and losses. Among the biggest whiners? The teams most used to success...and the Raiders:
The Emory study also concluded that Steelers fans are the second most "unstable" fans in the NFL, behind only the Oakland Raiders, a measure of the difference in their Twitter sentiment after wins and after losses. That means fans are happier than most when their teams win and sadder than most when their teams lose.
Following Steelers wins in 2012, tweets about the team from the Pittsburgh area were 79.6 percent positive -- an increase of 46.5 percent. The gap between the Raiders' highs and lows was 47 percent.
Fans of the Dallas Cowboys (4.8 percent) and Indianapolis Colts (5.7 percent) have much smaller gaps, leading Mr. Lewis and Mr. Tripathi to call them the most "stable" fan bases in the NFL.
The "happiest" fans in the NFL live in New Orleans, where 92.1 percent of all tweets following a Saints win are positive in nature, according to the study.
You can view more results here, but be advised these same guys ranked Cowboys fans the best in the NFL, rendering their entire methodology suspect.
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