Every single sports fan in the country knows how passionate the Eagles fan base is. Some (mostly Eagles fans) say they are the most passionate group across all four major sports in the United States (NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB).
Forbes recently released its rankings of the top-10 most passionate sports fan groups in the country. For these rankings, they took into consideration television ratings, game attendance, merchandise, hometown crowd reach, and social media reach. Out of all 123 teams across the four major sports, the Eagles can in 5th-place.
The rest of the top five is as follows:
1. Green Bay Packers 2. New England Patriots 3. New Orleans Saints 4. Pittsburgh Steelers
Forbes also mentioned that movies about the Eagles were a bit of a factor into the fanbase making its top-five:
"It takes a special breed of fan to merit two Hollywood movies, both of them blockbusters. The throng has made this franchise the most popular in Philadelphia, besting the Phillies, the 76ers and the Flyers."
Of course, the two movies they referenced were "Invincible" and "Silver Linings Playbook." However, they failed to mention arguably the greatest Eagle movie ever made -- Tony Danza's "The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon"
These rankings are flawed from the start because of the information they took into consideration for this don't truly measure "passion." It doesn't measure how many fans were buried in their favorite player's jerseys. It doesn't measure how many soldout open training camp practices teams have had. It doesn't measure how many fans flock to away stadiums to try to give their team home-field advantage. It doesn't measure how many fans walk around in a pandemic with their favorite team on their face. It doesn't measure how many tears were shed when their team won its championship.
At the end of the day, there will never be a real measure to figure out which fanbase is the most passionate. One thing is for certain though: Forbes got it right by having the Dallas Cowboys behind the Eagles/not in their top-10.
