Survey of Fan Loyalties: Are You a Displaced Fan?

An old article but I thought it was still interesting:


Why are there so many rabid Cowboys fans in Washington, so many Green Bay loyalists in the Twin Cities and so many Steelers supporters in Cleveland?

link: Survey of Fan Loyalties: Are You a Displaced Fan? - The Fifth Down Blog - NYTimes.com (http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/survey-of-fan-loyalties-are-you-a-displaced-fan/)

Interesting article. I don't remember where I heard this, but I believe one of the reasons that there are Cowboy fans within the DC area is because the Redskins were one of the last teams to integrate. So back in the days when the Redskins would not integrate black players into their teams, many fans who opposed this would root for the Cowboys. Another reason could be that there are a lot of bandwagon Cowboy fans and DC has a transient population. A lot of those bandwagon fans end up in DC for one reason or another.

In regards to other teams, cities that suffer some type of population exodus could result in fans moving to other areas of the country. For instance Pittsburgh comes to mind. I believe the city experienced a population exodus as the steel industry declined in that city. Many people moved to other areas of the country. Being the hardcore fans they are, these fans continued to follow the Steeler in their new homes.

I'm not surprised that the Redskins have a following in the Carolinas. I think the team had a southern fanbase for the longest time, especially in states that did not have teams of their own (i.e. Tennessee and the Carolinas). I'm sure there have been a decline with the coming of teams like the Tenn. Titans and the Carolina Panthers.

An old article but I thought it was still interesting:




I fell under the "Military category" for a long time. As far as the large population of Skins fans in the DC Area, I have 2 theories.

The first is that there are some children out there that hated their father so much that they chose to root for the Dallas Cowboys instead of the Washington Redskins.

The second is the fact that a redskins owner many years ago stated that the Washington redskins will never be integrated. This comment sparked rage in many DC area natives durring the time. In turn all of those DC area natives decided to root for the biggest rival of the Redskins instead. (BTW, it was the same owner of the Redskins that opposed an expansion team in Dallas)

The crazy thing is that now if you ask one of the decendants of a DC, native, Cowboys fan "Why do they like the Cowboys?" They cannot even tell you the answer. Pathetic, its all in the past, get over it.

Readers Point to Race as Reason for Cowboys Fans in Redskins Land - The Fifth Down Blog - NYTimes.com (http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/readers-point-to-race-as-reason-for-cowboys-fans-in-redskins-land/)

Dallas Cowboys History - The History of Texas' First NFL Team (http://www.ticketcity.com/nfl-tickets/nfc/dallas-cowboys-tickets/dallas-cowboys-history.html)

I don't know what category I'd fall into. Despite never living in or around DC (my folks live in Delaware but moved there after I was in college) I've always been a Redskins (and Hoyas and NY Mets) fan. I grew up in upstate NY where I was surrounded by Bills, Jets, Pats and Giants fans. I went to college in NC (pre-Panthers) so it was a mix of Cowboys and Redskins fans. After college I moved to Atlanta-Falcons stronghold and now live just north of Miami, Dolphin waters.

In spite of all of the ridiculous logic of 'You live here now so you should root for the home team' I've never wavered. My love for the Redskins is the major reason why I have DirecTV, so I can watch them on the Sunday Ticket.

If I relocate again, it will be to the DC region but until then, I remain 'displaced' I guess.

I fell under the "Military category" for a long time. As far as the large population of Skins fans in the DC Area, I have 2 theories.

The first is that there are some children out there that hated their father so much that they chose to root for the Dallas Cowboys instead of the Washington Redskins.

The second is the fact that a redskins owner many years ago stated that the Washington redskins will never be integrated. This comment sparked rage in many DC area natives durring the time. In turn all of those DC area natives decided to root for the biggest rival of the Redskins instead. (BTW, it was the same owner of the Redskins that opposed an expansion team in Dallas)

The crazy thing is that now if you ask one of the decendants of a DC, native, Cowboys fan "Why do they like the Cowboys?" They cannot even tell you the answer. Pathetic, its all in the past, get over it.

Readers Point to Race as Reason for Cowboys Fans in Redskins Land - The Fifth Down Blog - NYTimes.com (http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/readers-point-to-race-as-reason-for-cowboys-fans-in-redskins-land/)

I think it seems a compelling argument, but based upon personal observation I would tend to say that it does not and cannot explain the vast majority of Cowboys fans in the region. If it were a story about integration than you would expect that the majority of Cowboys fans would be African American, white 1960s era liberals/Civil Rights veterans, or descendants of those groups. That is not my experience. Race may represent a partial explanation, but I suspect that a larger portion is much simpler.

Between 1966 and 1985 the Cowboys won 12 division titles and 2 Super Bowls. They also won 7 Conference championships over that span. Like other teams that were great in the 1970's (Steelers, Raiders) they developed a large national fan base. The Redskins were also good during much of the 1970's, but not really a great team and did not develop a similar national following. Given the fact that most fans, especially casual fans, tend to ride bandwagons and especially given the fact that the Redskins/Cowboys rivalry became particularly heated in the George Allen era, local fans who either wanted to go with the winner, or simply be contrarian, or both, became Cowboys fans. So you have a generation of Cowboys fans born and then many of their children likely followed family alligences.

Then the cycle repeated in the 1990's. The Cowboys won 6 division titles and 3 Super Bowls in the decade and also appeared in several other Conference Championship games. They had Aikman, Emmitt, and Michael. John Madden loved them, they played on Monday Night Football all the time, etc. So the 1970's cycle repeated.

So my contention would be while the racial narrative makes better copy (and I don't deny that it explains the alligence of some), I think the majority of "displaced" Cowboys fans in the region have more basic motives for the rooting interests.

I think it seems a compelling argument, but based upon personal observation I would tend to say that it does not and cannot explain the vast majority of Cowboys fans in the region. If it were a story about integration than you would expect that the majority of Cowboys fans would be African American, white 1960s era liberals/Civil Rights veterans, or descendants of those groups. That is not my experience. Race may represent a partial explanation, but I suspect that a larger portion is much simpler.

Between 1966 and 1985 the Cowboys won 12 division titles and 2 Super Bowls. They also won 7 Conference championships over that span. Like other teams that were great in the 1970's (Steelers, Raiders) they developed a large national fan base. The Redskins were also good during much of the 1970's, but not really a great team and did not develop a similar national following. Given the fact that most fans, especially casual fans, tend to ride bandwagons and especially given the fact that the Redskins/Cowboys rivalry became particularly heated in the George Allen era, local fans who either wanted to go with the winner, or simply be contrarian, or both, became Cowboys fans. So you have a generation of Cowboys fans born and then many of their children likely followed family alligences.

Then the cycle repeated in the 1990's. The Cowboys won 6 division titles and 3 Super Bowls in the decade and also appeared in several other Conference Championship games. They had Aikman, Emmitt, and Michael. John Madden loved them, they played on Monday Night Football all the time, etc. So the 1970's cycle repeated.

So my contention would be while the racial narrative makes better copy (and I don't deny that it explains the alligence of some), I think the majority of "displaced" Cowboys fans in the region have more basic motives for the rooting interests.

I think that you bring up some valid points as well. Each of us is depicting the story based on their own personal experience. I would have to say that the combination of all theories that already have, and will be posted on here will explain almost in its entirety why there are so many displaced Cowboys fans in the region. I do believe that we have the major reasons accounted for though.

I think it seems a compelling argument, but based upon personal observation I would tend to say that it does not and cannot explain the vast majority of Cowboys fans in the region. If it were a story about integration than you would expect that the majority of Cowboys fans would be African American, white 1960s era liberals/Civil Rights veterans, or descendants of those groups. That is not my experience. Race may represent a partial explanation, but I suspect that a larger portion is much simpler.

Between 1966 and 1985 the Cowboys won 12 division titles and 2 Super Bowls. They also won 7 Conference championships over that span. Like other teams that were great in the 1970's (Steelers, Raiders) they developed a large national fan base. The Redskins were also good during much of the 1970's, but not really a great team and did not develop a similar national following. Given the fact that most fans, especially casual fans, tend to ride bandwagons and especially given the fact that the Redskins/Cowboys rivalry became particularly heated in the George Allen era, local fans who either wanted to go with the winner, or simply be contrarian, or both, became Cowboys fans. So you have a generation of Cowboys fans born and then many of their children likely followed family alligences.

Then the cycle repeated in the 1990's. The Cowboys won 6 division titles and 3 Super Bowls in the decade and also appeared in several other Conference Championship games. They had Aikman, Emmitt, and Michael. John Madden loved them, they played on Monday Night Football all the time, etc. So the 1970's cycle repeated.

So my contention would be while the racial narrative makes better copy (and I don't deny that it explains the alligence of some), I think the majority of "displaced" Cowboys fans in the region have more basic motives for the rooting interests.

Agreed 100%

The first is that there are some children out there that hated their father so much that they chose to root for the Dallas Cowboys instead of the Washington Redskins.

I have a step-child that falls into this catagory.

I think alot of you might be somewhat right. I also believe that it has to do with how well a team is doing year in and year out. Steelers go to the SB and we see them everywhere. Dallas went to the SB several times in the 90's and this is the product of it. I bet we will start seeing more Cardinal fans in our area also especially if they win the SB. They way to solve it.....Skins need to start winning SB's and we will start seeing a whole new generation of Skins fans taking over the DC area.

Other then that I would say transplants due to military or jobs.

I have always wondered why the Skins were the football team in a lot of southern areas? Either way I am proud of the fact that some out of state people are fans of our beloved franchise. Sadly the way the team keeps losing that could easily change. How many in house folks have jumped ship to the Ravens?

I have also heard Japan is a major Skins area. The reason being they put on a good show in the first NFL game played in the country and now a lot of Japanese folks are fans of the team now.

While we're on the subject; I came across this article from a DC Steelers fan:
D.C. Steeler Nation: Redskins Fans: Still Insufferable (http://dcsteelernation.blogspot.com/2007/09/redskins-fans-still-insufferable.html)