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Who's the classiest, most passionate?

footballhenry

By footballhenry
in 2005 Archives Forum

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footballhenry

footballhenry

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Of all the teams in the league, who do you think has the classiest group of fans? who is the most passionate? least classiest? least passionate? I mean most classy, etc. in terms of the fan base AND the organization I suppose. Go ahead and include the Skins if you want bc of course ALL of us are going to be partial but heres my list:

Classiest:

1. Green Bay Packer Fans

2. Washington Redskins Fans (seriously)

3. Houston Texan Fans

4. Carolina Panther Fans

5. Pittsburgh Steeler Fans

Least Classy:

1. Philadelphia Eagle Fans

2. Oakland Raider Fans

3. Baltimore Raven Fans

4. New York Jet Fans

5. New York Giant Fans

Most Passionate: Skins Baby!

Least Passionate: Cardinals (but in relative terms I might actually pick the Patriots, seriously they are passionate NOW cuz their winning but the town/area doesnt even care as much bc of the Red Sox, tahts just the way it is up there)

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NYSkins1

NYSkins1

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I agree that Eagles fans are unclassy (but then, who doesn't?). I'd put the Browns up there w/ the Packers and Skins. Falcons fans are interesting in that they're classy, uneducated (about football), but passionate (assuming the Falcons are winning). So I guess they could be considered not passionate...

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hail2skins

hail2skins

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NFL fan bases ranked, cheeseheads fill No. 2 spot

By Steve Czaban

Have you ever sat down and started making notes on the various NFL fan bases and tried to rank them according to some sort of coherent criteria? I have. And it wasn't easy.

So here's my list of the best fan bases in the NFL. This is not just home attendance. Not just a national fan base that shows up at bars and road games. Not just knowledge or dedication. All of the above. And weighted. Only I can't even say how. There is no formula. This is purely my opinion. Read it, and get mad.

1. Pittsburgh: For some reason, I just never seem to meet an obnoxious Steelers fan. (I know, there's a guy in your office I need to meet first.) These guys know their current team, they know their history, and they keep it all in pretty good perspective. If I've got to choose one "fan base" to sit down and drink a beer with, the "Stillers" fans get the nod.

2. Green Bay: No doubt Packers fans are insanely dedicated. To sit in Lambeau through the most arctic temps in the league year after year, is amazing. However, something about the Favre-worship bothers me. Not to mention getting married at the stadium. Part of me says to those people: get a life, it is only football. The other part is just jealous.

3. Miami: Whenever I meet a Dolphins fan in another city, the thing that impresses me is that he always has a really good take on what the hell is going on with his team many miles away. Too bad all the bar stool Fish fans from around the country can't get their asses down to Miami every now and then, because the locals can't ever seem to sell out the stadium for an entire season.

4. Dallas: In the city itself, these guys and girls are shameless front runners. There were non-sellouts during the Campo and Gailey regimes -- unacceptable, no matter how bad those guys were. But the Cowboy diehards around the country that have loved the team since Staubach and yet NEVER lived there, are smart and up to date on stuff. Even though some will act like rooting for the team since Aikman qualifies as a long time. I hate to admit it, but the Cowboys truly are "America's Team."

5. Oakland: Flat out, the biggest bunch of jerk fans in the NFL. Not altogether very knowledgeable, rational or employable. They obviously take their cues from the Greaser In Charge, Al Davis. What did you expect? Commitment to Excellence is easily the most pretentious slogan in sports, and their fans quote it as if it were Holy Scripture. Sadly though, like ants at a picnic, Raider fans are everywhere.

6. Cleveland: The city is too damn small, and the franchise without nearly enough past glory to have as many national fans as they do, but few teams pack bars in faraway cities like they do.

7. Chicago: When you are market No. 3, you will have plenty of fans scattered around the country, but the team's total lack of any player or season worth caring about since 1985 has kept this group very quiet.

8. New York Giants: Even worse than just being a New York team, the Giants reach deeper into New Jersey than the Yankees. And as usual, New York sports fans are just soooo endearing to everyone else around the country. Ugh.

9. Denver: I hardly know anybody who is from Denver, or ever lived there. Yet they seem to have a strong following that extends well beyond the local populace who keep the Broncos among the league leaders in consecutive home sellouts.

10. Philadelphia: Insanely loyal, intensely knowledgeable and neurotic to the core. Nothing good can come from anything the Eagles do in their minds. The fans that booed the McNabb pick on draft day, are now the ones saying he was their guy all along.

11. Washington: Once upon a time, a simply great core of fans. Sadly, Dan Snyder's lifeless mausoleum of greed (FedEx Field) has permanently softened the home field edge, and has also driven off five to 10 percent of the base in disgust of his hyper-spending, meddling ways.

12. Kansas City: The only team between Denver and St. Louis, fans of the Chiefs are hard core and legit, even though I rarely run into any around the country. Home field edge is no fluke, these fans rock on Sundays.

13. Buffalo: When you live under God's Snow Machine (Lake Erie), you are already a little bit insane. Yet, I've found Bills fans to be very easy to talk to without wanting to punch them in the face. You can't say that about many fan bases in the NFL that has a team which enjoyed a good amount of success recently. I guess LOSING all four Super Bowls, kept them humble. Otherwise, they might be insufferable.

14. New York Jets: Like with any New York based team, fans better bring knowledge and passion, or "just go the fu** home," as a Jets fan might say. But the last thing they could hang their hat on in terms of bragging rights was Namath, and he was a long, long time ago.

15. New England: Despite the recent run of glory, it'll always be a baseball town. Plus, I want to see the passion level in five years, when there's a good chance the team slips back into the middle of the pack. These fans barely exist outside of New England.

16. Minnesota: Sometimes unified by hating the Packers, more than loving their own team. City should have built the team a new stadium by now, but I can see the hesitancy to put money in Red McCombs' pocket.

17. San Francisco: Utterly spoiled by the Greatest Long Term Run any NFL franchise has ever had, and they now have no clue how to act or think. Here's a hint. Just sit there and suffer, like the rest of us usually do.

18. Tampa Bay: A part of that state which used to just care about the 'Noles and Gators, is now hardening into a really good NFL city. I still can't get over the old Creamsicle uniform colors and stupid pirate logo. It was almost as if somebody had a secret bet (ala Trading Places) that he could make the franchise fail in less than five years.

19. Tennessee: No doubt the fans in the Volunteer state know their teams and show up and shout like hell for them. But at the NFL level, I would guess that Titans fans don't watch or care about much else besides their own team.

20. Houston: A great football city dating back to Luv Ya Blue, or so I'm told. And even though Bud Adams was a two-faced prick, you just can't let your team walk like you did. Getting back into things quickly though, with a fabulous stadium and impeccably sharp color scheme and logo.

21. Indianapolis: It's a good thing this city has the smallest current stadium in the league, and the best quarterback of a generation, otherwise I think they would have a hard time filling up the seats. Very few "original" Colt fans migrated emotionally with the team from Baltimore, and for good reason.

22. Carolina: Fair weather like you can't believe, and winning so much in just their second season didn't help expectations. Still, I was happy to see the core group of Panthers fans rewarded by a trip to the Super Bowl last year. Insanely tight restrictions on behavior at home games (like no removing your shirt, among others) just crushes passion.

23. Jacksonville: Had trouble selling out games this year early, despite a team that was hot out of the gate and with one of the league's best young QBs. Maybe the market size just isn't big enough, and the league made a mistake here. Crushing AFC title defeat to Titans didn't help either.

24. Baltimore: I'll give them this much, their stadium is great. Otherwise, way too many Ravens fans act like they were in the limo with Ray Ray, and it was all blown out of proportion. Early Super Bowl victory in their return to existence, pegged the needle on obnoxious.

25. Detroit: These fans are really, really loyal and still show up to take it in the shorts year after year after year. I know this fan base exists, but it is harder to find than Osama Bin Laden right now outside of Michigan.

26. St. Louis: Always will be a baseball town (see Boston) and not having a team for a while hurt the momentum.

27. San Diego: I was a East Coast kid at 10 years old who fell in love with the 'Bolts because they were almost always the late game on NBC. And who didn't like watching Air Coryell? Now however, fan base seems to be predominantly So Cal gang banger -- witness the annual knifing in the parking lot after the Raiders come to town.

28. Cincinnati: These fans do exist outside of southwest Ohio, in fact I know one of them. One. That's all.

29. Atlanta: I read a stat where something like 70 percent of Atlantans are originally from somewhere else. This explains a lot.

30. Seattle: Poor, poor, Seahawk fans. Twenty-five years or something like that without a playoff win? And these saps once thought Jim Zorn to Steve Largent was a hot combination. How far did that take you?

31. New Orleans: The ghost fan base. Ask yourself: ever seen a dude rolling in Saints gear? Bad teams, bad attitudes, a ridiculous owner with a parasol on the sidelines, and this is what you get.

32. Arizona: Half empty stadiums on Sunday as far as the eye can see. New crib is being built as we speak, as if that will actually change anything. Two problems I see here besides the fact the teams have always sucked. 1) Worst owner in football 2) A nickname that is both stupid and not even remotely appropriate for the geography.

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hail2skins

hail2skins

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Agreed Califan.......I think Snyder does get too much blame for a facility that was probably built a little too quickly by Cooke. I think FedEx is a decent place, but the premium levels do lack a little of the class of other venues.....i.e. the club level at the Linc absolutely blows the one at FedEx away. I do think Snyder has increased the cheesiness factor there, though, between the $25 for parking, Mark Kessler on the PA system, and all of the friggin advertisements.

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hail2skins

hail2skins

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This was the review the "Road Trip" guys (site I linked in post above) gave when they visited in the Marty year. Funny, I thought the crowd that day was one of the better ones in the history of the stadium, despite the fact that a good number of people may have ditched their tickets after we started 0-5. I think its a fairly accurate picture:

Fedex Field, originally named "Jack Kent Cooke Stadium", opened in 1997 and is the third home for this long and storied franchise in the D.C. area, after having played in Griffith Stadium and then RFK Stadium. Located in Landover, Maryland close to the "CapCenter", this stadium is just a few miles from their former venue and only about 8 miles from

downtown Washington and the seat of our federal government.

Getting to the stadium: Located off I-95, getting to the stadium by car is the major option for fans attending the game. The stadium is nestled in a wooded, suburban setting, and is surrounded by office parks and gated, residential subdivisions nearby, but the wooded layout is such that

offsite parking is not an option. With the entire stadium sold outby subscription, the Redskins sell all their parking around the stadium on a season ticket basis, so the only cash parking for folks like us is at the Cap Center parking lot, and then a mile and a half hike or a shuttle ride. Our hotel was only a 25 minute walk away, so being a nice crisp day we hoofed it over and saved the $15 parking fee and the traffic jams after the game.

With no neighborhood ambience and massive surface lots, FedEx Field is perfectly suited for tailgating, and as we approached the stadium grounds, lots of tailgating is what we saw. But something was amiss.... where were the plumes of smoke and the smell of charcoal? The footballs being tossed around? Guys in sweats and old clothes playing pickup games? The tailgate scene here smacked of something surrealistic... choice of Merlot or fine Chardonnays ... pate and quiche on the menu...Well coiffed gentlemen in pressed, pleated slacks, chatting on their cell phones or tapping on their palm pilots. OK... maybe we are exaggerating a bit here for emphasis, but trust us when we tell you that we would have to look long and hard to find a good old fashioned bratwurst and an Old Milwaukee here. Here at FedEx Field... NFL football has gone corporate, and the pregame

experience was our first taste of what we were to find once inside.

Outside the Venue: With the naming rights bought by Federal Express, the purple/orange/green corporate colors decorate the outside of the stadium, and these colors ring the entire top of the

stadium. Walking around the stadium we saw quite a few hospitality tents offering pre game parties for corporate clients, and the "Redskins Marching Band" could be found outside providing pregame entertainment. The band was very nice!

The concourses: Once in the building, the first thing that caught our eye was that each of the concourses was named, and featured an historical exhibit on the honoree. The lower concourse is named the "George Preston Marshall" level, the club concourse the "Joe Gibbs" level, and the upper concourse the "Pete Rozelle" level. While concourses here are brightly lit and wide, they are pretty ordinary. Concession marquees are poorly labeled, and bear corporate ad panels that have no connection to the food being sold. The main merchandise store is called the "Redskins Hall of Fame" store and is on the main level - lots of cool stuff but really pricey, even by major league standards. There is but one escalator tower to take you to the upper deck, and that is on the southwest side of the stadium. There are two sets of escalators inside the concourse for club/suite ticket holders. We should also mention that in the lower level end zone concourses are two bars in the center, with plenty of monitors showing NFL Sunday Ticket action from other

games.

Premium seating: The club level seats here ring the entire building, and are completely open air with no weather protection. There are also two levels of suites ringing the building. Interestingly, the upper suites in each end zone have open air seating as well. Club level amenities include several food courts, a sports bar, a patio bar and a humidor room/cigar bar.

The seating bowl: This is one BIG stadium -- well over 80,000 seats broken into three levels. The lower and upper level seats are colored wine red, and the center club level seats are done in

yellow... Redskins colors. Terrific, right? BUT! Then add the orange/purple/green Fedex colors, ringing the top of the seating bowl, and you have a hideous mess of mismatched design.

At each endzone at the club level are jumbotron and companion dot matrix boards which are somewhat small compared to the giant video boards going up in the newer venues

elsewhere. We do, however, like the placement of the main scoreboards in this location rather than high atop the seating bowls, as this brings this vital component of the game

experience closer to the action and the fans. Along the sidelines on the club level balcony are synchronized ad panels, and in each of the four corners on the upper balcony are digital LED boards, which were used primarily for out of town scores.

Concessions: We looked long and hard for something notable here, but came up with the standard ballpark dreck and that's it. Again the eye-popping prices - $5 for a hot dog, $6 for fries, $7 for a beer. Owner Dan Snyder is sucking on his one billion dollar lemon, and somebody has to pay for this... guess it has to be these poor sap Redskins fans.

Banners/retired numbers: The Redskins proudly display their championship flags high above the north endzone,

and their two division titles won at this venue are hung on the suite balcony just below. Very impressive is the Redskins ring of fame - with almost 40 names of Redskins greats - players, coaches and ownership/management, displayed on the upper level balcony all the way around the seating bowl. Done VERY nicely!

Touchdowns/extra points/fumbles:

Extra point: The Redskins have sold out the ENTIRE building to season ticket holders. They heavily promote the "season ticket waiting list" to replenish fans who may drop out,

and keep the perceived demand for tickets high.

Touchdown (or should we say "SACK"): #78 Bruce Smith, one of the greatest players ever to wear a Buffalo Bills uniform, is here in Washington, still wreaking havoc in the backfield. Yes he is a fan favorite here in D.C., and we were proud to join in with the

trademark "BRUUUUUUUUUCE" chant for one of OUR all time revered players!

Fumble: to the folks operating the out of town scoreboard, who transposed the scores on a couple of occasions.... yes they did show "Buffalo 10, San Diego 0 in the 1st quarter", until they added "Touchdown by F. Jones", we thought WE had the lead. Ugghhhh! For the prices you folks charge for tickets, please GET IT RIGHT!

Touchdown: "The Washington Redskins Marching Band". They sit directly beneath the south end zone scoreboard, and entertain during TV breaks, giving a college football feel to the experience. The Redskins signature fight song, "Hail to the Redskins" is performed after each score.

Extra point: on the plaza is an enclosed beer garden offering post game music and entertainment under the theme "The Fifth Quarter". Given the lack of post game destinations adjacent to the stadium, this is kind of the thing to do here.

Fumble: Next door is the Cap Center, now named US Airways Arena, which has been totally neglected and is one run down and shabby venue. Overgrown landscaping, dilapidated signage, broken windows. Yet they still USE this place. What a disgrace!!!

Extra Point: Hail to the Redskins! Hail Victory! What do you get when you mix an NFL team off to a miserable 1-5 start and a home game attended by the roadtrippers??? Simple, a

2-5 club that is transformed in the presence of the mysterious USRT karma. Two in a row and 5 of the last 6 for the hometown club while in our presence!!!

Special thanks: To Mike Houck of Atlanta, Georgia, Redskins fan and season ticket holder who flies in for most of the games. Mike made his precious seats available to us, at face value, no less!

Thanks Mike - great seats and you are enshrined in the Ultimate Sports Road Trip Hall of Fame!

Summary: When we visit new venues we are often greeted by fans who speak of great pride of their new digs... here it was just the opposite. Almost all the people we spoke to yearned for

"the good old days" at RFK - small, cramped and intimate, yet apparently an intense and raucous atmosphere that has been difficult to duplicate here at FedEx. Granted the

Redskins are in the midst of a pretty bad year when expectations were running high, but we were really appalled at the late arriving crowd, the lack of electricity in the building and

the "tea and crumpets" fans sitting on their hands, politely applauding and generally keeping the decibel level low despite the presence of their hated rivals - the New York Giants. Add the fact that the home team thumped the favored Giants, and we were left wondering, "just what is going on here!?". To summarize - a so-so stadium built in an era when much glitzier and showier stadiums are opening elsewhere, a hometown crowd which is too corporate, too club seat, too wine and cheese, and those God-awful FedEx colors! Hey Washington --- paint your faces red and yellow, chug a few beers, grill some jumbo burgers at your tailgate and pile them high with condiments, and then walk into your stadium and scream your guts out for your beloved 'Skins, and you will earn our praise.

RATING (1-5 stars): 2 1/2 stars

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SkinsFTW

SkinsFTW

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I guess they didnt care for the new stadium. I've never been there myself so I cant say.

One thing:" Banners/retired numbers: The Redskins proudly display their championship flags high above the north endzone,

and their two division titles won at this venue are hung on the suite balcony just below."

I thought we had just one div title in fedex?

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hail2skins

hail2skins

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SkinsFTW --

Yes, we only have won one division title. There was a banner that hung in both end zones (I recall around the loge/suite level) that proclaimed "1999 NFC East Division Champions." The problem was that they left these damn banners up through the 2003 season but finally took them down before this past season. Probably it was Gibbs who saw them and told Danny "Uh, these aren't quite relevant anymore." Reminded me of Abe Pollin running an ad in the Post in 1996 when they were pushing to resign Juwan Howard and the ad's letterhead read: Washington Bullets: 1978 NBA Champions. Talk about being behind the times.

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SkinsNatsFan

SkinsNatsFan

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Posted
Originally posted by cfujskins

"11. Washington: Once upon a time, a simply great core of fans. Sadly, Dan Snyder's lifeless mausoleum of greed (FedEx Field) has permanently softened the home field edge,. "

Am I the only one who see's the truth in this comment?

No. Every home game, I'm at my seat, surrounded by way too many empty seats and opposing fans, and bombarded with ad after ad, commercial after commercial. Sadly, I have to agree.

Yes, winning will make a big difference, but I was at DC/RFK Stadium as a kid in the 60's, when the Redskins had been losing since the 40's. The fans were there for the Redskins, plain and simple, and hardcore, before the winning began again.

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