Cowboys and Indi—er, Braves

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Cowboys and Indi—er, Braves

by John Shelton Reed
Southern Cultures, Vol. 3, No. 3: Sports in the South

"Neither the Dallas Cowboys nor the Atlanta Braves are exactly 'America's Team,' but both seem to have won the hearts of southerners."

Neither the Dallas Cowboys nor the Atlanta Braves are exactly “America’s Team,” but both seem to have won the hearts of southerners. When the Fall 1995 Southern Focus Poll asked 801 residents of southern states and 481 other Americans “What is your favorite National Football League Team?” and “What is your favorite major league baseball team?” the Cowboys and the Braves were the favorites of 41 percent and 43 percent, respectively, of the 68 percent of southern respondents who had named a favorite team. The Cowboys enlisted the loyalty of only 8 percent of nonsouthern football fans, while the Braves had a nonsouthern following of less than 4 percent. The distant runners-up for the affections of southern fans were the Miami Dolphins (10 percent) and the Texas Rangers (7 percent). All other southern teams had even less support in the South than at least one nonsouthern team.

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