Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys are no longer the most hated team in the NFL

Published Feb. 10, 2016 3:44 p.m. ET

foxsports

Despite having a miserable 4-12 season, the Cowboys do have some good news to rejoice about this offseason.

They're no longer the most hated team in America, according to survey done by Public Policy Polling.

Every time we've done a poll over the years on the most hated team in the NFL the Cowboys have won out. But this year there's a new sheriff in town- 23% of fans say the Patriots are their least favorite team with the Cowboys dropping to second at 20% and no one else in double digits. It may be nice for the Cowboys to have dropped to only second most hated but we also asked if people still consider them to be America's team and only 27% of fans do, to 64% who say they don't deserve that designation.

We doubt that the Cowboys garnered any sympathy for having a rough season, but it seems that Deflategate and the Patriots' run of success (which included winning Super Bowl XLIX) may have played into this a bit.

Now, you flip to the other side of the coin, and most popular team is quite scattered.

The most popular team in the NFL is pretty bunched up. The Packers lead with 15% to 13% for the Panthers, 11% for the Patriots, 10% for the Cowboys, 9% for the Steelers, 8% for the Broncos, 7% for the Giants, and 6% for the Seahawks.

So the Cheeseheads from Wisconsin take the cake by a narrow margin. That's understandable. They won the first two Super Bowls, and they've never really proclaimed to be America's Team. The Lombardi Trophy is named after their fabled coach. And they gave us the Lambeau Leap.