Fandom 250: Buffalo Bills Finish In Top 100

Fansided.com recently took on the monumental task of ranking the Top 250 Fandom’s from around the sports, celebrity and entertainment world. Yesterday, they announced the results and Buffalo Bills fans were ranked the 84th best in the world. They finished sandwiched between the Florida State Seminoles (85) and Lego’ s (83). For a complete list of their rankings please click here.

So how does one rank a football teams’ fan base and compare them to fans of Lego’s and Taylor Swift? Very subjectively obviously. We all know as Bills fans we have one of the top fan bases in all of sports so how should we feel about our 84 ranking?

First, let’s start with an easy one. The Buffalo Bills finished ahead of both Democrats (97) and Republicans (96) which is a good start. Given how polarized our country is politically it’s nice to know that FanSided ranked the Bills ahead of the fervent supporters of both major political parties in our nation after one of the most divisive elections in our history.

Something that is a lot easier to compare is how Buffalo did amongst other NFL fan bases. The Bills ranked as the eight best NFL fandom. Ahead of them were the Seattle Seahawks (77), Denver Broncos (66), Oakland Raiders (53), New England Patriots (30), Pittsburgh Steelers (23), Green Bay Packers (21) and finally the Dallas Cowboys (5).

More from BuffaLowDown

I have three problems with this list. The 12th Man in Seattle is more of a recent phenomenon while Bills fans’ hardcore nature can be documented way further back. Many of the Seahawks fans are fair-weather fans who don’t know life before Russell Wilson and probably have no idea who Steve Largent is.

While the Denver Broncos have some good fans there is no way they are more loyal and that they are better than Buffalo Bills fans. I will chalk this ranking up to recency bias of their Super Bowl victory.

Lastly, I’m not willing to accept that the New England Patriots have better fans than Bills fans or that they should enjoy a spot in the top 30. Patriots fans are also fair-weather fans and it’s easy to show up when your team has been winning for almost two decades. Those same fans won’t be there if they went on an almost two-decade playoff drought like the Bills are experiencing. That’s why the Patriots should be dropped down the list significantly and the Bills elevated.

It’s hard to argue with the Raiders, Steelers, Packers and Cowboys being ranked ahead of the Bills. They are some of the most storied franchises in the league with some of the best fans but I would put Bills fans in the same league as any of them.

Some of the non-sports fan bases that finished ahead of the Bills and were somewhat surprising were Disney, Pokemon, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Snapchat, Robert Downey Jr. and Transformers. That’s a whole lot to digest but I would think only Trekkies and Harry Potter fans are deserving of being called as good or better fan bases than the Buffalo Bills.

In case you were wondering who the Top Five Fandoms were they are the Dallas Cowboys, Game of Thrones, Beyonce, Star Wars and the winners were the Chicago Cubs. That list is pretty solid and hard to argue with.

FanSided took on the impossible task of trying to rank the Top 250 Fandom’s and while imperfect they did a pretty decent job of completing this humongous task. The Bills finished as the 84th best fandom in the world. As loyal Bills fans, this is no surprise to us based on how hard we root for our team despite all the suffering we have been through.

Next: Buffalo Bills Need to Stick With Rex Ryan and Tyrod Taylor

Let’s continue to be the best fans that we can and who knows next year we may be able to crack the Top 50 or possibly even higher. What do you think of the Bills ranking at number 84? Should we be higher or lower? Leave comments in the section below.

Home/Buffalo Bills News