Dallas Cowboys Still Amercia's Team

Here's an I didn't see this coming moment:

According to an ESPN poll, America's favorite football team is still the Dallas Cowboys.

Yes, the Dallas Cowboys. The team that hasn't made the playoffs in years and hasn't been to the Super Bowl since smartphones were invented is still a favorite among American football fans.

The Boys were followed in the poll by the Steelers, Packers, and Broncos. But a glance at the ratings show many of the most-watched games involved Dallas.

Sunday Night Football on NBC is filled with Cowboy games. No matter how bad this team may be, it still draws an audience, continuing a trend that was first reported in 2009:

I'm not surprised. I grew up on the Gulf Coast and at the time, both the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons, teams in my region, were terrible.

Most of the games that were broadcast on national television outside the Saints and Falcons involved the Cowboys and Steelers.

So you had to become a fan of one or the other. Despite how bad they've been at times over the years, the Dallas Cowboys are still a very exciting team to watch, whether they're winning or losing.

Well, OK, winning or losing, they do have this going for them:

Cheerleaders aside, Dallas is probably the most hated NFL franchise, too. There's a large segment of fans out there who take great pleasure in watching the Cowboys crash and burn. 

Of course, much of this attitude is centered on owner Jerry Jones. Even Cowboys fans hate the dude, but despite that, Dallas is one of the few teams that has a national following that, to the chagrin of the haters, puts money in the Cowboys' coffers and a big Texas grin on Jerry Jones' plastic face.