The Pittsburgh Steelers had an up-and-down 2023 season to say the least, featuring peaks and valleys and ultimately culminating in a loss in the wild-card game to the Buffalo Bills. It was an eventful season to be a fan of this team, and there were many moments of just pure frustration, like back-to-back losses to the sputtering Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots.
And what do football fans do when they get frustrated? For a lot of them, they drink beer, Pittsburgh Steeler fans were up there with just about anyone in the league when it came to drinking the most this season.
BACtrack, a company that produces breathalyzers that can connect to your phone, ran a study with over 28,000 data points to determine which NFL fan base drinks the most on game day. Eligible tests for the study were taken between 6 AM the day of the game, and 6 AM the day after the game, and I assume that most of them were taken during or right after the game itself.
The Tennessee Titans ranked number one with an average Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .093%, and right after them in second place was the Pittsburgh Steelers, at an average BAC of .088%. The legal limit to receive a DUI in all 50 states is currently .08%. The Titans, Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, and Atlanta Falcons were the only four teams with an average result above that limit.
There seems to be some negative correlation between winning and drinking a lot, as the Steelers were the only team in the top five that made the playoffs this season. On the other end of the spectrum, the Kansas City Chiefs ranked a distant dead last with a .051% BAC. The Chiefs fans were the same distance away from the Commanders fans in the 31st as the 21st-ranked Cowboys fans were from the Commanders. I guess winning football games is entertaining enough.
Where the correlation is far from perfect and there are a handful of outliers, the Steelers seem to be the biggest one, at least on the higher end of BAC scores. While this point has been drilled in by former Steelers and talking heads around the league, maybe it’s a symptom of the Steelers’ organizational standard being one of the highest in the NFL, and a first-round playoff exit not being near good enough. Or maybe Steelers fans just like to drink.
