A six-year run as the most popular team in the NFL came to an end for the Dallas Cowboys in 2014, but the team can call itself "America's Team" once again, after the Harris Poll pegged them as No. 1 once again.
The Dallas Cowboys are ‘America’s Team’ again
The 2015 Harris Poll lists the Dallas Cowboys as the most popular team in the NFL.
Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports
The annual Harris Poll ranks each NFL team by popularity and provides other insights into the current state of the league in the United States. The 2015 poll indicates the NFL is doing very well, with 58 percent of those polled saying that they follow professional football. That’s up from 55 percent in 2014 and just behind the 59 percent mark of 2012, which is the highest ever since the Harris Poll first began polling NFL popularity in 1992.
When the Harris Poll first began ranking NFL teams in 1998, the Cowboys were the top team in popularity and recently took the crown for six years in a row before the Denver Broncos were listed as No. 1 in 2014, while Dallas dropped to No. 4. They swapped places in 2015 though, with the Cowboys back to No. 1 and the Broncos down to No. 4.
| 2010 | 2011 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | |
| Dallas Cowboys | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Green Bay Packers | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | tie-2 |
| New England Patriots | 6 | 4 | 5 | 8 | tie-2 |
| Denver Broncos | 14 | tie-17 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 4 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 5 |
No Harris Poll was taken in 2012
Staying in the headlines with DeflateGate drama also seemed to help the New England Patriots, who jumped from No. 8 in 2014 to a tie for No. 2 with the Green Bay Packers.
Other big movers were the Arizona Cardinals and Atlanta Falcons who climbed from Nos. 19 and 22 to Nos. 11 and 12, respectively. Among the tumblers were the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings, which fell from Nos. 11 and 12 to Nos. 21 and 23, respectively.
For the eighth time in the last 10 seasons, the NFL's least popular team is the Jacksonville Jaguars. A streak of four seasons at No. 32 for the Jaguars was only kind of broken in 2014 when they finished in a tie with the Tennessee Titans for No. 31, but there was no tie at the bottom in 2015.
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