Raleigh, N.C. – The Dallas Cowboys get touted as “America’s Team,” but PPP’s latest poll shows that, at least right now, the until-recently undefeated Green Bay Packers deserve that moniker, with twice as many fans nationally as the Cowboys. 22% say the Packers are their favorite team, from a list of nine, while 11% prefer the Cowboys, 8% each the Chicago Bears, New York Giants, and Pittsburgh Steelers, 7% the New Orleans Saints, 6% the New England Patriots, 4% the Washington Redskins, and 2% the New York Jets. 24% root for someone else or are not sure.
The Cowboys are, if anything, America’s most hated team. Twice as many (22%) say Dallas is their least favorite team as that they are #1. That is also twice as many as hate the next challenger, the Bears (11%), followed by the Packers (8%), Pats and Redskins (7%), Steelers (6%), Giants and Jets (4%), and Saints (1%). Indeed, in a head-to-head, even more fans line up with the Packers against the Cowboys. Between the two, 49% of American voters like Green Bay more, and only 28% prefer Dallas.
Despite his team’s prominence in fans’ hearts right now, and despite his astronomical numbers in a recent PPP poll of Wisconsin, the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers is the most anonymous of nine QBs tested nationally, and not the most beloved. 53% have no opinion of him, 39% see him favorably, and only 8% unfavorably—strong numbers, but not compared to the injured Peyton Manning’s 51-9, Drew Brees’ 46-6, Tim Tebow’s 50-15, or Eli Manning’s 44-12. He does best Tom Brady’s 35-17, the Cowboys’ Tony Romo’s 23-27, Ben Roethlisberger’s 20-31, and Michael Vick’s 24-43.
The numbers are much less clear when the quarterbacks are listed than when the teams are, but among the nine, Tebow is America’s favorite right now (15%), followed closely by the Mannings (14% for Eli and 12% for Peyton), 10% for each Brees, Rodgers, and Brady, 6% for Vick, and 4% for Big Ben and Romo. At 26%, Vick is by far their least favorite, followed by Big Ben (15%), Eli Manning (11%), Brady (8%), and Romo (6%).
PPP surveyed 700 American voters from December 16th to 18th. The margin of error for the survey is +/-3.7%. This poll was not paid for or authorized by any campaign or political organization. PPP surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews. PPP is a Democratic polling company, but polling expert Nate Silver of the New York Times found that its surveys in 2010 actually exhibited a slight bias toward Republican candidates.
PublicPolicyPolling wrote: