America's Team: Regardless of Polls, the Cowboys Are Still America's Team

What does it mean to be “America’s Team”?

According to some silly Yahoo! article, it is simply a poll, and that poll says that the Packers are the most popular and the Cowboys are the least. There is a difference between Q scores and true popularity.

In the NBA, which team received the highest ratings for games and at the same time was despised? The Miami Heat, of course. Even though many fans wanted them to fail in the Finals, they still tuned in to watch. If the Heat were not in the Finals and it was, say, the Thunder and the Indiana Pacers, would as many people care? I doubt it.

The Cowboys are somewhat similar in that respect; even if they do not receive the highest favorability ratings from polls, they are still “America’s Team.” The perfect way to look at a team’s popularity is through their television ratings over an extended period of time. The Cowboys have traditionally received much higher ratings for games than any other team in the NFL.

If Green Bay is truly the most important/popular team in the NFL, then why on Earth would analysts and people in sports media care about Tony Romo? I mean, he has only won one playoff game, and the past two seasons have been disappointments. The only reason why the media would ever concern themselves with the Cowboys and Romo would be if the viewers watched the segments and read articles about the Dallas Cowboys. The simple reason why there are stories about Romo is because he is the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, the most prestigious brand in professional football.

Using polls to gauge popularity on matters like team popularity are meaningless and arbitrary. The participants in the polls were most likely people who do not regularly watch NFL football, and they see Green Bay winning the Super Bowl last year and they are doing well this season. In essence, true fandom is dead and has been replaced by fair weather fans who want to support a team that is winning so they can brag to their coworkers at the water cooler that their team beat their colleague’s team.

The only true way to evaluate popularity is avenues such as merchandise sales, value of the team, and television ratings. If the Cowboys weren’t very popular, then why on earth were they able to get the crown jewel of modern sports stadiums, and why are they the second most valuable team in the world? If the Cowboys are so unpopular, then they should have had as easy of a time getting a new stadium as the Houston Oilers had. The only way a team could be the second most valuable team in the world than that would require a devoted fan base, a large viewership, and a great stadium.  

One little side not, the Cowboys didn’t invent the nickname “America’s Team.” It was created by NFL films for a highlight film, because wherever the Cowboys were, they always seemed to be fans in the opposing team’s stadium.