This is the fifth in a running feature at ECB. We'll be rating NFL Fanbases by annoyingness and picking a winner for each division. After that, we'll select wild card teams, and have ourselves a little playoff. If you have suggestions for upcoming divisions or wildcard selections, send them to [email protected]. So far we have given you the AFC West, the NFC West, the AFC South, the NFC South, and the AFC North. Who will join the Raiders, Cardinals, Jaguars, Panthers, and Ravens fans as the most annoying fans in their division? This week we present the NFC North.
Green Bay Packers
Quick Reaction:
Let's see... borderline morbidly obese... check... wearing a tacky gimmick to prove how much of a fan you are... check... booing wildly the quarterback who ached and bled and fought for you for years and brought you back to relevance... check. Now for the things in Packers fans favor... they come out and fill Lambeau for EVERY home game in the most wicked weather conditions in the NFL, they've made the gameday experience at Lambeau one of the "can't-miss" events to attend for any sports fan, and they actually own part of the team.
Detroit Lions
Quick Reaction:
If the task of these posts was to grade Lions fans, I think they'd at best get an Incomplete right now. That said, I post the above video for your enjoyment. Who doesn't love a drunk girl at a football game getting cuffed by the cops and dragged off sobbing after she tries wildly to throw a haymaker at somebody else in her section?
Chicago Bears:
Quick Reaction:
Chicago lives and breathes by the Bears as they say goodbye to beautiful Chicago late summer weather and bear down for the horrible winter ahead. Their fans have stuck with the team through the woeful post-Super Bowl shuffle years through the horrible 90s. Cade McNown, Rashaan Salaam, Curtis Enis... the Bears drafts of the 90s almost make me feel like the Redskins made good decisions. Almost. They have fans in every city and town but they don't permeate and multiply and feel the need to make themselves immediately apparent, like Steelers fans.
Minnesota Vikings:
Quick Reaction:
Outside of Minnesota, nobody really hears about Vikings fans. We see them dressed up in their horrible costumes to attend games, but they have little to no reputation around the league in any particular direction (annoying or not). They are coddled by the Metrodome and don't have to attend games in the brutal Minneapolis winter, that much is clear. Vikings fans are just kind of there. They don't arouse really any sort of reaction from anybody.
The Big Winner:
Congratulations Cheeseheads... in what I'm sure will be a controversial selection, you are the most annoying fanbase in the NFC North. You own the team and you come out in droves and you make Lambeau Field great. But your persistent need to not only be great fans of your team but to let everybody else in the world know just what great fans you are makes you the most annoying fans in the NFC North. Oh, and boo Ted Thompson, not Brett Favre next time.
Coming up in the next two weeks... the divisions many people have been waiting for... the AFC East and NFC East (I have to recuse from the NFC East selection but arguably the four fanbases in the NFC East would rank 1 through 4 if you had to rank all teams in level of fanbase annoyingness)
5 Responses:
That Lions video only made the rounds, I think, because it was the most passion shown by a Lions fan in ages.
I'd have voted Vikings due to their refusal to build a new stadium despite getting 30+ good years out of the Metrodome and having L.A. hanging over their heads.
Didn't Ted Thompson do the right thing by letting the over the hill QB who fades down the stretch in the cold weather every year go and sign the QB for the team for the next ten years? Isn't that his job, to make the team good? Favre wanted to have his cake and eat it too by reporting to camp whenever he wanted. Changing his mind fifty times. Jobbing the rules of the league to go to Minnesota to stick it to the Packers. The booing was appropriately placed.
Booing Favre is completely acceptable. He's been a total dick in the past couple years to everyone that likes sports. He's a great quarterback but he either needs to hang 'em up permanently or just shut up about leaving.
It's tough though. I'd mull the Bears simply because I think Packers fans have a right to boo. Regardless, this division winner wouldn't leave first round of the playoffs.
Bear fans are far more annoying than Packer fans. Let's not forget how the Green Bay fan base stuck with their teams through some horrible seasons in the 70s and 80s.
Booing Favre is completely acceptable after the crap he pulled in the spring/summer of '08. He actually retired and unretired twice that summer, and then retired his way to a bitter rival just to stick it to his old franchise.
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