1. Washington
Sure, the Redskins have fans that are wildly more passionate than any team in Florida and most of the AFC West. But their problem is a poisonous, self-loathing culture that Robert Griffin III is just now getting them out of. Like a lesser college football program against an in-state rival with more brass, the base exists to hate the Dallas Cowboys. You’ll see grown men wearing custom NFL jerseys that read “F. Dallas.” You’ll commonly hear “I don’t care that we won three games this season because we beat the Cowboys.”
It’s a short-sighted approach to fandom. But it makes sense if you spend time in the area and look into the history. Before the Carolina Panthers broke up the populous, the ‘Skins were the team of the south. Their fight song ends, “fight for old D.C.” but it used to be “fight for Old Dixie.” The ‘Skins have an ugly racial history—they were the last NFL team to integrate. As a partial result, the residents of D.C. proper—they don’t’ call it Chocolate City because the town loves pastries—were slow to embrace their hometown team. Many of them became reactionary Cowboys fans—the first NFL team to integrate, a totem for a brighter future. To this day, black D.C. is heavily divided between Cowboys and Redskins fans. Why root for a team that is more emblematic of rural Virginia than it is an urban center?
My neighborhood pub in D.C. was owned by two sets of Irish brothers from Philly. They swore to me–today’s Fed Ex faithful are more vindictive and mean-spirited than Philly ever was. I can’t go that far, but Fed Ex Field on game days probably has, pound for pound, more pit bullish assholes than any other place in the world.
Moreover, Redskins fans continue to defend their racial slur namesake in overwhelming droves. It’s a base led by salty, stubborn, and combative bullies.
Correction: The author of this post misidentified CenturyLink Field by its original name, Qwest Field. Fansided regrets the error.