Philadelphia Eagles talk: Recent list screws up NFL fan rankings

Any NFL fan ranking that doesn’t rank the Philadelphia Eagles fan base number one needs to be thrown out. Period.

With this brief dead spot in on-field football, sometimes, we’re forced to look around and see what everyone else is talking about. That means every once in a while, you find a rankings list or something of that nature. Shortly after lunch on June 26th, AOL.com released their list of the best fans in the NFL. The Philadelphia Eagles finished third, behind the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots.

Just on that statement alone, this list can be challenged for its’ correctness.

There’s no way the Patriots have better fans than the Eagles.

Let’s start with the guys from Foxborough. The Patriots aren’t even the most popular team in Boston, let alone the entire NFL. When you have time, take a survey. Round up every Patriots fan that you can find, and see if any one of them can claim, honestly, that their love for this team precedes Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

You’d be hard-pressed to find one who does.

Patriots fans are loyal to one thing, winning. They couldn’t be found when this team was among the worst in the NFL, and while there haven’t been many instances of failure over the last decade and a half, in the rare moments when things haven’t gone right, they’re the first ones to leave the stadium early.

Eventually Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will leave. When they do, the winning will leave with them, and you’ll have a hard time trying to find anyone who can claim honestly that they love the name on the front of the jersey. They only love the names on the back.

That brings us to the Cowboys.

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Here’s something you may not know if you’re not a die-hard NFL fan. The Dallas Cowboys fan base is among the most delusional and bandwagon fan bases in all of sports.

Do they have true fans? Absolutely, they do, but, much like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the New York Yankees or the Los Angeles Lakers, the Cowboys are home to a specific type of fan, the front-runners.

They exist because of the team’s success. They can disappear for years at a time, but as soon as there’s a winning streak or a playoff push, they come out of the woodwork.

There’s no escaping them when they do. It’s like an infestation.

There will always be Cowboys fans. There are just more Cowboys fans when they’re winning.

The typical Eagles fan loves their team because cheering for their team has been a part of their family’s DNA forever. The Cowboys fan, much like the Patriots fan, exists because of two eras, one in the seventies and one in the nineties.

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Just talk to one. All they can talk about is the five Super Bowl trophies. Philly just got their first, and their fans stuck with them through the ups and downs. They always have. They always will.

That’s the difference.

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