Let’s not beat around the bush: There are tons of annoying sports fans out there. But who are the worst offenders? You’ll probably find them in the National Football League – the most popular league in North America, with its players getting fed to the lions on a weekly basis.
Some NFL fans are worse than others, though. If you happen to follow one of the seven teams on our list here at Ozoon, please don’t take any of this personally; the fact that you can read gives you a leg up on these more unsavoury characters. At the same time, this isn’t about bashing specific cities, or the United States as a whole. Canada’s most popular NFL team has earned its place on this list, as we’ll discover in a moment, but let’s kick off with the consensus “most annoying fanbase” of them all.
Philadelphia Eagles
Again, don’t blame us, Eagles fans – we’re not the ones who booed Santa Claus. Every year, The Athletic conducts an anonymous poll of NFL players; the most recent one we’ve found asking this question was from 2023, and it was Philadelphia taking first place at 25.3%.
That’s what you get for messing with Kris Kringle. On December 15, 1968, the 2-11 Eagles were playing their season finale against the Minnesota Vikings at old Franklin Field, and when Santa came out for the halftime Christmas parade, he got pelted with snowballs, along with beer bottles and the occasional hoagie.
It may have been just another Sunday in Philly, but Howard Cosell played up the incident on ABC Weekend Report, and a reputation was born. Still, when the Eagles moved to Veterans Stadium in 1971, the cheap seats in the 700 Level were home to what author Jere Longman called “hostile taunting, fighting, public urination and general strangeness.” They even installed a courtroom and jail there after a particularly rowdy game in late 1997, and those holding cells made their way to Lincoln Financial Field in 2003.
Dallas Cowboys
Only one team came remotely close to matching Philadelphia’s fanbase at The Athletic, and it was the Cowboys at 24.7% of NFL players surveyed. They may be called “America’s Team,” but nobody outside of Texas voted for that – NFL Films gets credit for giving Dallas their nickname in their 1978 season highlight film.
Here’s the thing: The Cowboys were indeed widely beloved at the time. Things started going south in 1989 when Jerry Jones bought the team; the former Arkansas offensive lineman fired popular head coach Tom Landry and installed his former Razorbacks teammate, Jimmy Johnson. Dallas went on to win two Super Bowls with Johnson and a third under Barry Switzer, but that was over 30 years ago. This club has been mired in mediocrity ever since, with Jones himself getting most of the blame as both owner and GM.
But what about the fans? They might be getting undue blowback from all that vitriol aimed at Jones, although you’ll definitely find legions of Cowboys supporters who act like it’s still 1995 with Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin leading the way. Then you have all those casuals who fell in love with the star on the helmet, but know nothing about football. They seem to show up at every stadium when the Cowboys are in town. Don’t lob hoagies at them, Philly, you’ll only encourage them.
New England Patriots
Here’s another case where you have to separate the fans from the team itself – but that doesn’t give Bostonians a free pass. Their reputation as sports fans (Bruins, Celtics and Red Sox included) rivals that of Philadelphia for good reason, and the Patriots fanbase became as insufferable as QB Tom Brady himself during those six Super Bowl victories.
It wasn’t just the winning, though. It was the cheating; Spygate and Deflategate were treated as attacks on the franchise instead of the scandals they were. And once Brady left town and the team started losing, everyone turned on head coach Bill Belichick (now catching strays at UNC).
Meanwhile, owner Robert Kraft seems to get a free pass for all his peccadillos, which are too numerous to list here. Will losing Super Bowl LX to the Seattle Seahawks teach this fanbase some humility? Good luck with that.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers fans have a lot to be proud of, especially those six Super Bowl titles. But their team was the one wearing the black hats (literally) during those early wins over Landry’s Cowboys, back when DT “Mean” Joe Greene was kicking opponents in the groin and spitting in their faces.
Those Steelers supporters have developed even more of a sense of entitlement than fans in New England – partly because they’ve been a successful franchise for generations now, and partly because they haven’t had a losing season since 2003. However, Pittsburgh has also been remarkably mediocre since the waning days of “Big” Ben Roethlisberger, and now they’ve managed to find an even more polarizing starting QB in Aaron Rodgers.
As for those Terrible Towels their fans bring to every game, your mileage may vary; it can’t be any worse than throwing octopuses (octopodes?) or toy rats on the ice, like hockey fans still do in Detroit and Florida. But the Steelers fanbase gets extra demerit points for waving these towels en masse during road games at lesser-attended venues, turning them into a sea of mustard. Only fans of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors are allowed to get away with that kind of behaviour.
Las Vegas Raiders
Remember when the Oakland Raiders had the best fans in the NFL? The ones in the Black Hole who painted their faces and put on the Road Warriors-style shoulder pads with the spikes sticking out of them? Very few of those guys followed the team to Las Vegas. Some refused to support the franchise once it skipped town; most were simply priced out.
What’s left is a soulless collection of nondescript NFL fans from across the globe who just happen to be in Vegas that particular weekend. It’s a problem you’ll find at other new stadiums, especially SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, where fans of the Rams and Chargers are often drowned out by the visiting team’s supporters. But it’s especially galling in Vegas, and now they have Tom Brady pulling the strings from the owner’s box – sometimes even the coaches’ booth, like he did in Week 2 last year versus the Chargers.
Green Bay Packers
Packers fans don’t have to worry about meddling owners – they are the owners. And for the most part, they’re exactly the kind of fans a football team needs. They’ll come out to Lambeau Field in any kind of weather, wearing those ubiquitous foam cheese wedges on their heads. Sometimes they even wear shirts.
But if you think Patriots and Steelers fans feel entitled, strap in, because the Packers take it to a whole new level. Maybe it’s because they spend their entire lives on the waiting list hoping to grab season tickets, but once they’re in, it’s like they’re the Chosen Ones and everyone else is second-class.
Don’t bother trying to talk with them about quarterbacks, either. First they loved Brett Favre, then they hated him, then they gave Aaron Rodgers the same treatment – and none of it had to do with their off-field behaviour. Let’s see how long it takes before they turn on Jordan Love.
Buffalo Bills
We did warn you. Bills Mafia will jump off of high places and crash through folding tables; they will throw snowballs at each other in the stands and in the parking lot, or at least we assume they’ll keep doing that at the new Highmark Stadium this winter. Tailgate at your own peril if you’re going to Orchard Park. The exuberance is commendable, but five straight AFC East titles isn’t enough to wipe the stain from those four consecutive Super Bowl losses – not when Kansas City keeps derailing their playoff drives. The way Buffalo fans rode Scott “Wide Right” Norwood out of town on a rail for his missed figgie at Super Bowl XXV (after first cheering Norwood during the post-game rally) was particularly troublesome.
That combination of unearned entitlement and persecution complex is unique in the NFL. Then again, Buffalo has already seen its NBA team move to California, and the Bills had one tentative foot in Toronto before Terry and Kim Pegula bought the franchise in 2014. This fanbase needs one thing besides a Super Bowl victory: more Canadians. Maybe one day we’ll be able to visit again without feeling like we’re crossing the River Styx.
Now that we’ve taken the starch out of these seven fanbases, it’s your turn to vent. Should we have put Kansas City on this list instead, since they keep on doing The Chop? And what about those New York teams that actually play in New Jersey? Let us know. In the meantime, visit our NFL odds page at Ozoon for the latest betting lines, and enjoy responsibly.