At some point most of us have probably wondered who our fellow fans would consider the Cowboys biggest rival in the division. Do we still think that the Redskins are our most bitter rivals in the division? Or have the Eagles supplanted the Redskins over the last decade? And what about the Giants?
Well, one way to answer those questions is to see how often we talk about them, as that might be a good indication of how much buzz the other team is generating among the Cowboys fan base.
So we developed a highly unscientific test protocol to measure that buzz level. With the help of our nifty search function in the top right corner of this page we searched all the BTB comments for team name (e.g. Eagles) and team city (e.g. Philadelphia) and added the two numbers. The results after the break.
Here's what we found: Through Sunday, the Eagles have the highest 'Buzz Level' on Blogging The Boys - 3.2% of all comments on BTB contain either 'Eagles' (11,946), 'Philly' (7,177) or 'Philadelphia' (780). The Giants are a close second with 2.6% ('Giants', 'New York'), and the Redskins are a distant third with 1.3% ('Redskins', Washington'). Sooo ... apparently we Cowboys fans talk most about the Eagles.
But what about the other teams, do they return the favor? Here's an overview of how often the four NFC East SB Nation blogs talk about their opponents.
|
BUZZ Level NFC East - percent of comments containing references to other teams |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| per 2/13/2011 |
Total Comments | Cowboys | Eagles | Giants | Redskins | ||||
| Blogging The Boys | 647,497 | 3.1% | 2.6% | 1.3% | |||||
| Bleeding Green Nation | 394,691 | 3.3% | 2.3% | 1.3% | |||||
| Big Blue View | 244,016 | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1.1% | |||||
| Hogs Haven | 169,659 | 2.2% | 2.0% | 1.3% | |||||
The Eagles return the favor and obsess over the Cowboys more than any other team. The Giants fans in turn are all abuzz about the Eagles, and also talk a lot about the Cowboys - in fact, the Giants fans talk more about the other teams in the East than the fans of any other team.
The Redskins are the exact opposite: while they talk about the Cowboys more than about the other teams, overall they don't talk about the other NFC East teams all that much, probably preferring instead to focus on their real enemy: Danny Snyder. Curiously, the Redskins don't appear to be much more than an afterthought on the three other NFC East team blogs either.
But is who you talk about an accurate reflection of who your biggest rival is?
Historically, the Cowboys vs. Redskins rivalry has been one of the most storied rivalries in all of pro football. More recently, the Giants and Eagles may have emerged as the opponents who generate more intense feelings among the Cowboys fanbase, especially the younger fans.
Eagles, Giants, or Redskins, which beast in the East do you love the least?