What NFL Team’s Fans Hate the Patriots the Most? Get Ready to Be Surprised
The New England Patriots don't exactly get much love outside the region where people say "chow-dah," but who despises Tom Brady and company more than anyone else?
FiveThirtyEight recently interviewed nearly 2,300 football fans from across this great land of ours to find out which team's fan base hates the Patriots the most. The answer: the New York...Giants. Yeah, not the Jets, who reside in the same division, have been living in their shadow for nearly two decades and were coached for a brief period by Bill Belichick.
The Giants, of course, have proven to be the Patriots' krpytonite by beating them in two Super Bowls, so why exactly the disdain? Nearly 35% of G-Men fans say they'd place the Pats in their list of three least favorite teams. Take a look at the other fans who have pure disdain for New England:
Team Fans Who Hate the Patriots Most
- Giants - 34/7%
- Steelers - 33%
- Panthers - 32.9%
- Colts - 32%
- Broncos - 31.6%
- Seahawks - 31.6%
- Bills - 30.4%
- Titans - 30%
- Eagles - 29.9%
- Buccaneers - 29.5%
Those are some pretty whacked-out numbers, if we say so ourselves. Only one team from the AFC East? That's hard to believe. And while it's understandable for fans of many teams to have vitriol towards Tom Terrific and his merry band of revolving teammates that continue to dominate, we find it hard to imagine the Titans and Buccaneers to be among them. The other teams on this list have lost to them in the playoffs or, like the Bills, are divisional rivals. The Titans? The Buccaneers? Come on. The Jets, incidentally, finished a surprising 20th on this list.
While the Patriots are pretty reviled (only the Cowboys are more hated), the Chiefs are the least disliked team (ironically, the Chiefs destroyed New England back in Week 1 -- and Twitter let Brady have it). That ought to take away some of the sting from not winning the Super Bowl since 1970, right?