If you’re sensitive to your status as a fan, you might want to cover your eyes for this one. If you’re a normal person, feel free to read on as normal. The Cleveland Browns were recently named as having the best fanbase in the NFL.
Granted, it pretty much means nothing and was highly unscientific. FOX Sports held a Twitter-based bracket tournament inspired by March Madness to determine the ‘best NFL fan base’, with fan voting being the determining factor in each round of the tournament.
So in other words, Browns fans are really good at being active in polls on social media when it concerns their legitimacy as fans. Congratulations to them. they defeated the Tennessee Titans in the ‘championship’ round of the tournament.
In case you were wondering, the Pittsburgh Steelers did not make it very far. While they were one of the number one seeds and defeated the Cincinnati Bengals fanbase in the first round of the tournament, they went on to lose to the fourth-seed Chicago Bears in the second round. Chicago ultimately made it to the semi-finals before losing to the Browns. Cleveland and Pittsburgh were the only AFC North teams to advance past the first round.
While we make light of Cleveland and their fanbase at times, however, it is impossible to deny that they do legitimately have among the most passionate groups of fans in all of the NFL, and perhaps in all of major American professional sports.
The fact that they have had a minimal amount of success for a long time, even going back prior to their identity crisis that gave birth to the Baltimore Ravens, hasn’t done a great deal to dissuade the core of their fanbase to waver throughout the years.
They even stuck through the recently ended Hue Jackson era, in which he pretty much posted the worst record in NFL history by a head coach over a period of two and a half years, literally winning three games and tying in another.
There should be no surprise that there is an uptick recently, however, with the emergency of Baker Mayfield at quarterback and the major moves that the front office has endeavored to make happen, headlined by the trade acquisition of All-Pro wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr.
When it comes to omnipresence of diaspora, however, I still don’t think that any team can rival the Steelers. While the reputation of their being well-traveled is a bit misleading—the truth is that they have a lot of refugees from the city’s economic downturn that saw Yinzers migrate all across the country—the fact of the matter is that they have an active presence in every road game they play, sometimes even more than the home team.
I would definitely take that over online activity, though I think we all know Steelers fans are not bashful when it comes to comment sections on articles. Our own work on Steelers Depot is a testament to that.
