New study shows Patriots haters are still out in full force
Although the Patriots have given up their throne as the top team in the league every single season since Tom Brady left, which prompted many fans who despised New England to enjoy their downfall, they haven't stopped expressing their hatred enough to keep them out of the top-5 most hated teams in the NFL.
At least, according to a new study.
A Kansas City-based news station, KAKE News, published an article reviewing the results of a study conducted by an online betting site. The article described how the study was conducted and what was considered fan hatred of a team, all of which came from tweets shared over the last 90 days.
"The study says the Chiefs are the "most disliked" team in the NFL, dethroning the Dallas Cowboys. BetOnline.ag tracked negative sentiment posts, such as "I hate the Cowboys," "Screw the Cowboys," etc., directed at each team. More than 120,000 X posts were tracked. "
At first glance, seeing only 120,000 tweets were tracked on a platform filled with toxicity, even in the
football world, seems hard to believe. Surely, they would have been way more, right? Apparently not.
But the funniest part about the list that Patriots fans will enjoy is seeing how much 31 other fanbases still can't stand New England, even though they haven't been a competitive team for nearly four years. Considering they've taken several victory laps when finally seeing the big brother of the league fall, they can't stop expressing how much they can't stand them.
It's a bit ironic.
The top 10 most hated NFL teams
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Dallas Cowboys
- Philadelphia Eagles
- Baltimore Ravens
- New England Patriots
- New York Giants
- New York Jets
- Green Bay Packers
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- San Francisco 49ers
The Chiefs' position at the top is no surprise; some have even claimed they have become the "new" Patriots with how often they've reached the Super Bowl in recent years. The rest of the top five also make sense, but the Patriots stand out like a sore thumb.
The study revealed that Kansas City received over 10,000+ hate tweets in the three months, by far the most of any other team, while the Patriots, in fifth place, recorded more than 5,000.
The rest of the teams in the top 10 feel very regionally specific since only the 49ers have seen success in the last decade and more. This makes it seem like fans of rival teams often take to Twitter to express their dislike of them.
But what is clear from this study is that the legion of Patriots haters remains strong, regardless of whether they say the team has become irrelevant. If that were really the case, why are you tweeting about them so much?