Seahawks...Most hated NFL team outside Seattle

[Jazzhawk]

Apparently, we have arrived.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/football/2014/01/03/outside-of-seattle-people-love-to-hate-the-seahawks/

Here in Seattle, people love the Seahawks. Everywhere you look there are 12th Man flags, Hawks T-shirts and blue-and-green decorations. The team’s playoff tickets sold out in less than 30 minutes. Fans love Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Marshawn Lynch and the whole Seahawks squad.

Outside of Seattle, it’s a different story. In fact, the Seahawks have become one of those NFL teams people love to hate.

 

[Throwdown]

Means we're doing it the right way

 

[drdiags]

Why are the Chiefs getting the hate? Andy Reid?

 

[Throwdown]

How do 49er fans not get on anyone else's nerves?

 

[Bigpumpkin]

How do 49er fans not get on anyone else's nerves?

What about the Steelers? Look who they have for a QB...a rapist!!

 

[Polaris]

This confirms something I've felt for some time. Our Seahawks have become the new "Raiders" (I mean the real Raiders that terrorized the NFL in the 1980s and 90s).

 

[DavidSeven]

I question the validity of that graph. No one gives two craps about Kansas City. Texans and Bengals more hated than the Pats and 49ers? Get real.

 

[mistaowen]

Eh, I live in Boston and from what I gather most east coast fans like the Seahawks as their 'NFC team'. I have a lot of Jets/Pats friends who all like the Seahawks even if they don't follow them religiously like I do. A large group strongly dislike Sherm for how he handled the Brady thing when they came to Seattle but I loved every minute of it and so do my Jets friends. They all wont argue against him being one of the best CBs in the NFL though. I even went to the Cards/Pats game last year when Arizona beat the Pats at home wearing a Rick Mirer throwback jersey and got a lot of compliments about the Seahawks at the time.

Success comes with enemies. I guarantee 5 years ago we would be where the Chargers were on the list.

Side note, no idea how Pittsburgh is so low on that list. EVERYONE I know around here hates the Steelers and most of them barely remember when we got screwed by the NFL. Throw in the entire pacific northwest and it makes no sense,

 

[-The Glove-]

How do 49er fans not get on anyone else's nerves?

What about the Steelers? Look who they have for a QB...a rapist!!

I question the validity of that graph. No one gives two craps about Kansas City. Texans and Bengals more hated than the Pats and 49ers? Get real.

Yeah...not sure about this graph. I don't doubt were hated NOW, but everyone I talk to hates the Niners and Stealers

 

[MidwestHawker]

I like it, at least if the findings are true. The results, such as KC at #2, seem a little screwy and it makes me question the methodology. Like I have no idea who even bothers thinking about the Chiefs, not even this season when they're a playoff team.

 

[PlinytheCenter]

Hate = Fear

 

[MidwestHawker]

Yeah, hate is a good thing. If anyone ever questions that, ask yourself how many people hate the Jacksonville Jaguars. Except from some division rivals, you'll get literally no national hate unless you're relevant.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

EXCELLENT.

 

[djb28]

It is nice to be on a list. Two years ago no one knew what a Seahawk was. I walked in to the store during the Holliday and a guy saw my Hawks hoodie. He came up to me and said, "You picked a good team to follow this year" It instantly pissed me off as I looked at him cock eyed like just before The Rock laid the hurt. I kept calm though and said..
"Buddy, this is 30 years of commitment . I don't know how you watch football where your from."

 

[jkitsune]

I question the validity of that graph. No one gives two craps about Kansas City. Texans and Bengals more hated than the Pats and 49ers? Get real.

Absolutely agreed. No one hates the chiefs but the raiders.

 

[The Outfield]

Looks like a BS list created by 49er fans. Or maybe 49er fans spend all of their time on Twitter trashing the Seahawks. It's easy for this to be a flawed analysis.

 

[Navyhawkfan187]

It's based on twitter negativity where everyone outside of KC talks about how their not actually legit, every team Seattle has beat this year has taken to twitter in droves talking about how much they hate us. Then look at the other end of the spectrum, nobody was talking about Pittsburgh because they started out horribly and nobody hates SD, they're not even worth talking about, half the time people don't even realize they're not actually SDSU unless Philip Rivers does or says something trollworthy.

 

[TwistedHusky]

Weird.

It seems like the sample is the kind of result you would get if you filled most of the results with 49er fans, or bay area residents?

Of course it is filled with 49er fans BECAUSE PEOPLE IN THE BAY AREA USE TWITTER MORE.

Which explains the Kansas City hatred, because 49er fans were peeved at Chief's fans rubbing their nose in it after it turned out Alex Smith could be decent somewhere else (there was a point in the season, after the loss to the Colts and Seahawks when the 49ers looked like they made a terrible error getting rid of Smith and Kap looked lost then).

I initially wondered if they bothered to normalize the data against the regions or at least normalize it so that sentiment was matched proportionally across geographic regions.

I am going to bet they did not.

Twitter engagement is bigger on the West Coast than the East Coast and it is bigger in the demographic 30-40 than younger (who use things like Instagram and more recently things like SnapChat). Older people barely use it as well. Anything below 25 is generally using other social networks. So you have a view of 25-40 year olds primarily on the West Coast but with large pockets of users in the bay area.

So yeah. It is a study that shows a viewpoint of a narrow segment of NFL fans.

Not that I don't love being hated. I believe you should embrace and cultivate any hatred you can in sports. I just don't think we are yet.

EDIT: I just read the rest of the study (consumer sentiment, engagement and decision support software is my space). The process has so many flaws or issues as to be useless.

And it would take 4 pages to detail all the problems I have with the study, suffice to say it probably indicates nothing. We are nowhere near the most disliked team and using twitter sentiment just proves the sample and methodology are suspect.

 

[kearly]

Think about how this chart might look if we didn't have two of the league's most beloved players as the faces of our franchise (Wilson, Lynch).

I can buy Seattle being the most hated team for a couple reasons. The first is that stupid people will always bristle with up and coming teams (see KC, who's also tied for #1), especially up and coming teams that do things in a way that hadn't been done previously. And for the record, there are a lot of stupid people in the world.

The second is that Seattle plays dirty football. It's smart, but dirty, and basically lives off of exploiting weaknesses in the NFL rulebook particularly in regards to how our corners and OL play the game. Couple that with a "huckster" head coach, and an all-pro corner who talks shit with the volume up to full 24/7, and it's not hard to see the source of the antipathy. Also, the crowning of the 12thman this season has undoubtedly revealed some insecurities in other NFL fanbases.

Oh, and one more thing. Seattle fans have whined a lot this season. And boasted a lot. Deadly combination. This hasn't escaped the attention of other NFL fans at places like NFL.com and ESPN. You see all the time where the top rated comment at NFL.com will be an ignorant blanket statement blasting Seahawks fans for being too smug and/or playing the disrespect card too much. They are no less guilty for making statements like that, but the high approval rating of their comments reveals it is a popular sentiment. We might just be the NFL's most prideful fanbase, and pride attracts hate like a moth to the flame.

And really, that's what this is all about. It's more about hating fans than their teams. I know for myself that 99% of the reason I hated the Steelers after SBXL was because of a handful of classless Steelers fan turdburglers who didn't receive their just desserts. The same way that so many around here hate the 49ers mostly because of their obnoxious fanbase.

Why are the Chiefs getting the hate? Andy Reid?

They are a new to success team, plus people hate things that are over-rated or seem over-rated. KC was tied for the lead in pro-bowl player representation, despite being a good but not great team.

Now the Texans, that's the one I can't figure out. I guess everyone just hates the state of Texas.

 

[davidonmi]

I have a hard time believe the patriots are really that low