While we’re on the Cowboy flame wagon, fuck Troy Aikman. You don’t like the Packers, we get it asshole, could you pretend to be impartial as you narrate the game though. Every time the Packers are ahead they’re ‘offense is struggling and their defense doesn’t recover the ball enough’, whenever we’re behind it’s ‘this team just hasn’t been able to pull it together this year.’ It wouldn’t be so bad except he seems to announce every single Packer game.
Along with the rest of the world I got tired of the Favre show, he got more press than many teams combined, but he’s gone now and not missed.
Many Cowboys fans complain about his announcing Cowboys games, saying he’s unduly harsh on the Cowboys and going way overboard in an effort to appear unbiased.
Over the last decade, the Eagles and Steelers have been consistent contenders. The Jets play in New York, and have been a contender the last two years. Before Rex Ryan, the Giants got way, way more coverage than the Jets.
I don’t think any “Pittsburgh diaspora” has much to do with it; a few hundred thousand scattered ex-Pittsburghers in a country of 300 million doesn’t amount to a lot . Both teams are popular because in the 1970s-80s, when football surged in popularity, those were the two marquee teams, in the playoffs every year, and constantly on Monday Night Football. They’ve simply managed to hold onto their market share.
I know several people who are fans of those teams and have no connection whatsoever to the cities. (Rush Limbaugh is devout Steelers fan – he’s from Missouri) The Raiders are a third team like that; they’ve sucked so hard in the last 2 decades it’s waned, but they still have a lot of fans that couldn’t find Oakland on a map.
And “America’s Team,” like it or not, is grounded in reality: The Landry-Staubach Cowboys were wildly popular. They got great TV ratings, they sold a ton of merchandise. Again, it’s waned, but they still do.
There’s some of that, for every team. But keep in mind that the exodus began around 30 years ago and so we’re into the third generation of Steelers fans, which is a lot more than a few hundred thousand. Teams that moved or were replaced by a new team have the same sort of fanbase. Believe it or not, there are some people in Maryland that still like the Colts. Also, there were fewer teams in the 1960s-70s which would put the old guard teams at a decided fanbase advantage when compared to the expansion teams.
I was just thinking last night that I’ve seen way too much of the Rams in the last few years, watching on Sky Sports (UK) then All Sports Network (Singapore). I swear I’ve seen them about a dozen times, way out of proportion considering how they’ve been hogging so much of the suck.
I don’t mind seeing the suck teams once in a while - I wish I could see the Bills more often - but it seems to me that the Rams get far too much of my screen time.
For NOW they have- but in ten years, when LeBron is retired and the Heat are just another mediocre NBA team, nobody will still hate the Heat.
But people will still hate the Celtics. Because NBA fans always have and always will.
In the same way, lots of people resented and hated Michigan’s “Fab Five” for their overexposure… but today, almost nobody hates the Michigan basketball program. People will ALWAYS hate Duke.
Some teams get overexposed for a little while. Only a handful get overexposed year in and year out.
But yeah, the coverage of the Cowboys is totally obnoxious, and I’m talking about the Dallas papers.
ANY Cowboys story seems to trump any other story about any other sports team in the city or state. It seemed like dumb-ass stuff like Tony Romo leading the team in workouts during the lockout got equal press with the Mavs winning the damn championship.
Hell, in today’s paper the Cowboys got equal press with the Rangers, who are in the ALCS, and the Cowboys can’t play their way out of a paper bag.