Patriots are most popular NFL team in Canada (2024)

Who’s your favourite NFL team?

I always find it interesting to learn how different Montrealers (and Canadians) become fans of a certain NFL team.

NFL.com reports that merchandise sales and fan engagement surveys show that the New England Patriots are the most popular team in Canada and QB Tom Bradyis the favourite player. Following the Patriots in the top-five list of teams in Canada are the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills.

Article content

Article content

The Cowboys are ranked as the most popular team in the United States, followed by the Packers, Denver Broncos, Giants and Patriots.

Read more by clicking here.

Read a previous blog post about life being pretty good for Patriots QB Brady by clicking here.

Below is a column I wrote back in 2005 about how some members of the Montreal sports media picked their favourite NFL team:

PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETTE ON OCT. 23, 2005

STU COWAN
GAZETTE SPORTS EDITOR

There is definitely no shortage of National Football League fans in this city, even though we don’t have an NFL team to call our own.

While betting pools play a big role in fan interest here, most NFL fans I talk to have a favourite team that they like to cheer for. And I find the stories behind how fans started cheering for a particular team to be quite interesting.

For example, how does someone become a Cleveland Browns fan?

“Because my father was a Browns fan, it’s as simple as that,” Gazette football writer Herb Zurkowsky explained. “He was a Browns fan when they were really good, so I can remember Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly … they had some great teams.

Article content

Article content

“My father was a Browns fan and I was too stupid to know better,” Zurkowsky added with a laugh. “I’ve suffered with them over the years, I’ll tell you, watching them lose AFC championship games to Denver.”

Since members of the Montreal sports media don’t have to cover a specific NFL team, they can feel free to break the rule of “no cheering in the press box.” With that in mind, I decided to ask the media members who take part in The Gazette NFL Pool (which appears in the paper every Friday) which teams they root for.

The Gazette’s Pat Hickey also grew up cheering for the Browns because of Hall of Famers Brown, a running back, and quarterback Otto Graham.

“When I was 9 and 10 years old, Jimmy Brown was from Rhode Island, where I grew up,” Hickey explained. “He was arguably the greatest player in the history of the NFL.”

In the 1970s, Hickey also cheered for Dallas, after his cousin Bruce Walton (the brother of former National Basketball Association star Bill Walton) joined the Cowboys as an offensive lineman.

Gazette columnist Jack Todd is a Green Bay Packers fan because of QB Brett Favre. “I grew up kind of hating the Packers when they were on top, but (Favre) is by several thousand degrees my favourite player in the NFL,” Todd said. “I love the way he plays the game for fun.”

Article content

Rick Moffat, the voice of both the Alouettes and the Canadiens on CJAD radio, is “a long, loyal member of Raider Nation.”

“That’s one of the key reasons why I usually tend to go with my heart on that pick and they always trash me,” said Moffat, who became a Raiders fan because of quarterback Kenny Stabler and his outlaw image.

Moffat’s partner in CJAD’s football booth, former Alouettes player Tony Proudfoot, has a soft spot for the Bills because of his former coach Marv Levy, who went on to coach in Buffalo after leaving Montreal.

CFCF TV’s Randy Tieman is a die-hard Detroit Lions fan.

“Just because of where I was born (Exeter, Ont.) more than anything,” he said. “We were always Lions fans and we used to go to the games … it was a two-hour drive to the Silverdome.

“I’m one of those long-suffering Lions fans still waiting for them to draft a quarterback. We haven’t had a quarterback since Bobby Layne!”

Global TV’s Paul Graif cheers for the Cincinnati Bengals.

“I’ve been a Bengals fan since about 1980 … going way back to Kenny Anderson, Dan Ross, Cris Collinsworth,” Graif said. “They played in two of the greatest Super Bowls ever.”

Article content

Tony Marinaro of The Team 990 radio is a New York Jets fan. “When I started watching football about 20 years ago, the Jets were on TV all the time, so I had more of a chance to see them,” he explained. “I’m a loyal guy, so I’ve stuck with them.”

Denis Casavant, Marinaro’s morning partner on the Wake-up Call, says he doesn’t have a favourite team any more. “But when I started following the NFL, my favourite team was the Houston Oilers because of Earl Campbell, but that’s a ways back,” he said.

TSN’s Darren Dutchyshen doesn’t have a favourite NFL team, either. “I think it’s more a geographical thing,” he explained. “I’m from Saskatch-ewan, and in Saskatchewan there is only one football team and that happens to be the Roughriders.”

Personally, I became a Cowboys fan when I was about 13. To be honest, I think the reason had more to do with the team’s cheerleaders than quarterback Roger Staubach.

Article content