After a contentious labor dispute between team owners and players that lasted more than 18 weeks, football is back. While the regular season doesn’t begin until September, the New England Patriots are the Super Bowl favorites heading into the 2011 season.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of adults who watch professional football at least once a week finds that 18% believe Tom Brady and the Patriots will be champions of the National Football League this year. Twelve percent (12%) believe the Green Bay Packers will repeat as Super Bowl champs, while 10% say the Pittsburgh Steelers will find redemption after last year’s big game loss. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Of the other teams named in the survey, the Philadelphia Eagles earn seven percent (7%) of the vote, while the New Orleans Saints earn six percent (6%). The Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons are picked by fewer than five percent (5%) of fans, while 28% think some other team not named will win the final game. Another 12% aren’t sure.
But when it comes to who fans want to see win the Super Bowl, the race is even closer. The Steelers are the only team that earns double-digit support on this question with 10%. The Packers, Patriots and Saints each earn eight percent (8%) of the vote, while six percent (6%) would like to see the Eagles win their first ever Super Bowl championship.
Again, less than five percent (5%) of fans want to see the Jets, Colts and Falcons win it all this year. Forty-five percent (45%) are pulling for another team not mentioned in the survey.
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The national survey of 622 Professional Football Fans was conducted on August 18-21, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Not only are the Patriots the favorites heading into the regular season, they also have the most confident fans. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of adults rooting for the Pats to win it all think the team will do so. Steelers fans are second with 77% who think Pittsburgh will bring home another Lombardi trophy, while 73% of Packers fans are expecting a repeat.
Among fans who tune into the NFL more than once a week, 21% pick the Patriots, while the Steelers and Packers are virtually tied for second.
Twenty-six percent (26%) of men think New England will end the season as champions, but only eight percent (8%) of women agree. Fifteen percent (15%) of women think the Steelers will win.
Much to the relief of football fans the lockout ended before part of the season was lost. Back in June, 70% of football fans thought it was likely the football season would not start on time and 49% thought it was at least somewhat likely there would be no football season at all in 2011. Forty-nine percent (49%) of fans blamed the owners for labor dispute.
This time last year, the Colts and Dallas Cowboys were picked by fans to win the Super Bowl, while just six percent (6%) correctly predicted the Packers would win.
In June, 49% of football fans blamed the team owners in the labor dispute, while 29% blamed the players.