On the heels of one of the most-viewed NFL seasons in the league’s history, Harris Interactive released its poll that asked adults about their sports preferences.
Among adults who said that they follow at least one sport, 36 percent chose professional football as their favorite. Major League Baseball came in second at 13 percent. The gap between football and baseball widened, from 14 percentage points in the 2011 poll to 23 percentage points in this year’s survey. That 23-point gap is the largest disparity between the No. 1 and No. 2 sports since the poll’s inception in 1985. Professional football has been selected as the most popular sport in each year since the poll began.
The NFL has grown from 24 percent choosing it as their favorite sport in 1985 to 36 percent in 2011. The gap between football and the second-most popular sport has grown as well, from one percentage point in 1985.
The percentage of fans that named pro football as their favorite sport jumped from 31 percent in 2010 — a five-percentage-point increase, the highest in the poll’s history. Since 1985, the NFL’s popularity has increased by 12 percent while baseball, which remains the No. 2 sport, has dropped by 10 percent. No other sport has increased by more than three percent during that span.
Full poll results and methodology are available from Harris Interactive.
-Stuart Zaas
Tags: harris poll
Hilarious, AJ.
3G, here is a list of FA DT’s for 2012, but as you can see, they’re not all unrestricted.
Brandon McKinney (BAL) – DT
Amobi Okoye (CHI) – DT
Jonathan Fanene (CIN) – DT
Pat Sims (CIN) – DT
Brodrick Bunkley (DEN) – DT
Marcus Thomas (DEN) – DT
Andre Fluellen (DET) – DT
Howard Green (GB) – DT
Eric Foster (IND) – DT
Nate Collins (JAC) – DT
Leger Douzable (JAC) – DT
C.J. Mosley (JAC) – DT
Fred Evans (MIN) – DT
Letroy Guion (MIN) – DT
Shaun Rogers (NO) – DT
Trevor Laws (PHI) – DT
Red Bryant (SEA) – DT
Gary Gibson (STL) – DT
Frank Okam (TB) – DT
Vance Walker (ATL) – DT – Restricted
Ryan McBean (DEN) – DT – Restricted
Sammie Lee Hill (DET) – DT – Restricted
Kyle Love (NE) – DT – Exclusive Rights
Antonio Dixon (PHI) – DT – Restricted
Steve McLendon (PIT) – DT – Exclusive Rights
Clinton McDonald (SEA) – DT – Exclusive Rights
Jermelle Cudjo (STL) – DT – Exclusive Rights
Malcolm Sheppard (TEN) – DT – Exclusive Rights
Amobi Okoye is available again … i wonder if we get on it this year. Man is like a 5 yr pro and he is 25 lol. Okoye and Bunkley would be the only guys I want of that list. maybe Marcus Thomas for depth. No more McBean … please.
But we all know we ain’t looking at DT … they paid vickerson and ty warren and are probably gonna stick with them. We can dream tho I suppose. I do however expect them to get Bunkley back at least.
TRB
I say we resign Bunkley and Thomas then add Pat Sims to the mix and call it good for the year. Should hold up if we get Ty Warren back healthy.
Id personally take Amobi over sims. Sims is a bigger body but Okoye is better inside pass rusher which I believe is what they say we need. 15 sacks not too shabby. Either or tho I suppose but like I said … not likely. At 24 if we can get Okoye that would be 1 less position to draft. But sims at 26 aint bad either. TRB
I think Bunkley is a stud man we need to hold on to him
They are going to rebuild through the draft first and foremost, so they will only pick crumbs left over off the FA Market just like last year, so I for one I’m not going to get my hopes up on getting anyone on that FA list. We need to keep Thomas and Bunkley, boot McBean out of here as far as we can and try to get out of the Warren contract as damaged goods never does us any good, even though DMT may become the exception to that rule, but he is young with huge upside, Warren is not.
I meant not getting my hopes up on getting anyone worthy on that FA list.
If JDR becomes DC-7, I’d imagine one or two of the Jacksonville FAs comes over. I noticed they have 2 FA DTs, not to mention a FA CB that would look good in orange and blue…just throwing it out there
Broncos Country Strong 2012!
Ben Garland? The air force guy? He should be able to play this year I believe…
how does that work with him? do we have a contract with him or what?
You may be right, sndvl. He was only serving a 2 year commitment, which started in 2010.
DO, all I know about it is, yes, there is a contract, but it’s essentially tolled. The player isn’t paid and he doesn’t count against a team’s roster limit. The team can activate him after he completes his military service, if they choose to, and expect him to play out the terms of the contract. I don’t know what the terms of Garland’s contract are, though.
My #1 pick as far as DT in the draft is Dontari Poe. Thats if we do draft DT in the 1st round.
You are probably right Bay about the FA list, though I think there is a small chance we would pick one up in the FA market just by the way Elway was talking. It would have to be someone “very special”. I’m ok with building through the draft, takes longer but the results can be fantastic. I look ar the camradre of this team in this last season, it played a big part in the teams success. Takes a special attitude of a veternan accomplished player to fit in sometimes. That is something else we had, veterans like Dawk & Paxton that are just plain good people.
I had forgotten about Vickerson , who was playing pretty good before he got hurt and the Air Force Garland. Always fun in the off season trying to figure out what might happen. Also thought that Fox may want a young DC that will stick around. He picked pretty good last year, too good! Go Broncos!
Thanks Tide!
Is he any good?
Garland? I don’t remember too much about him except for the two or three 2010 pre-season games he was able to play in, but he had several tackles and was pretty impressive, best I can remember. McDaniels thought a lot of him, and he had a good college career, but we’ll have to see what Fox thinks about him.
Any help we can get on the line would be nice. Thanks again Tide.
I’m hearing some ESPN Analyst talk about Denver bring a good fit for Peyton. I would bet my right arm he won’t even give us a visit
Imready, since we only have seven draft picks this year (so far) there’s no doubt in my mind that Fox will have to draw from the free agent market some unless he keeps almost all of his current roster, which most of us know he won’t. They’ll be wheeling and dealing all the way up to the final roster cuts and trade deadline, just as they always do.
Garland is very similar to Mitch Unrien… Garland went to Air Force, and Unrein went to Wyoming… They did ok when playing against lower tier college linemen and 2nd string linemen in the NFL but Unrein is easily blocked by one offensive lineman and has trouble holding ground at the point of attack, let alone penetrating upfield to disrupt the flow of the offense… Garland is Smaller than Unrien so I don’t expect more from him in this regard
I would grade Garland as a 5.5 out of 10 and not a real game changer…
If the spy brought him in then I guess I should have known he wasnt much of a game changer
Orange, yeah, Denver and four or five other destinations. I can’t envision Peyton in Denver, but mainly because I just don’t feel like his neck is going to allow him to play anywhere next year, and he’ll probably end up retiring. We’ll see, though.
It’s such a perilous injury and he’ll be 36 years old in March, so he doesn’t have many playing years left anyway. It wouldn’t surprise me if he renegotiated his contract and just stayed on to mentor Andrew Luck (or RGIII) if the Colts take him, or went into coaching or an administrative role with the team…..that is if he and Irsay get their bantering back and forth worked out.
I just can’t logically see any team taking him on unless he’s cleared medically, and that’s been a long, drawn out process that is still not over.
I wouldn’t be against Peyton being here but like you said we don’t even know if he can play. I don’t think we have the bucks to gamble with.
Plus I think Tebow is going to get us Barkley next year anyway.
It’s funny how Brady’s QB coach called the local media about Tom calling in. Everyone saw the Tom is concerned about his Mechanics. The reason the QB coach wanted to make news was of Tebow. Now the QB coach of Brady wants to coach Tebow. Any way to make money huh??? It’s a atory coming out how he can fix Tebow in 2 weeks. lol This guy is shameless.
In other news at the Probowl it’s amazing!! Everyone is being asked Tebow questions which is funny. Seeing how he not here at all. Everyone want to tell there take on the kid.
Wow, some blogger already thinking Tebow will be bad enough next year to allow us to draft Barkley, or am I reading that wrong?
The Cleveland Browns will be the Cleveland Browns:
Adam Schefter: Cleveland Browns hired former Vikings HC Brad Childress as their offensive coordinator.
Yes Bay you read that right! It pains me to say it but Tebow won’t stand a chance next year with Mccoy still calling the shots. I like Tebow but he is in a system that is handicapping him rather then teaching him. I hope I’m wrong and they work extra hard with Tebow in the offseason on being a more Accurate pocket passer instead of just letting him run the option scramble to the left and hope our lack luster wide outs are open.
Heard through the four letter network (I think it was), that the browns are likely to move up for RG3. I take that to mean they are giving up on Colt McCoy?
Who would have thunk it? Tim Tebow had a better 2011 season than Bradford, McCoy and Clausen…
I hear you AppleJack but we can’t get away with playing a college style offence forever It won’t work next year. If we win more than 6 games next year it will be because our D is playing lights out not our Offence unless we go away from the 2011 scheme and start new.
Yeah the Browns are giving up on McCoy and rightly so, remember I’m in Austin, I know enough of McCoy that I wouldn’t want him as my NFL QB and top that with the fact that the Rams with the #2 pick are not going to be interested in RG3 since they believe in Bradford and the way is paved for RG3 to become a Brown, poor guy.
I don’t care if they run a college style, pop warner style, NFL style or whatever. Just win games.
I don’t care if they only throw 2 passes in a game.
I don’t care if they run 55 times.
I don’t care if they never throw a screen.
I don’t care if the only way we win is if Matt Prater has to kick 60 yard field goals every single game.
Just win games.
Bay,
So, McCoy is basically a decent backup? Better than Orton or about the same?
You think Jimmy Clausen is done as well?
I don’t care how we win either but we all know something has to change on offence for us to even give prater a shot at a 60 yarder. You don’t just win games by showing up dude u have to have a game plan that is different every week and running it 55 times in a row on 1st down wont work
McCoy would make a good back up, not equipped to take the whole season beating but has good accuracy to get you through a couple of games. Never was a fan of Clausen hence is big tumble in that draft.
Funny, I was looking back at the Clausen draft and this is what I came up with from John Clayton (right after the first day of that draft):
Biggest Losers:
1. Jimmy Clausen: The Notre Dame QB was clearly one of the biggest losers in recent drafts. As bad as it was for Aaron Rodgers and Brady Quinn to drop into the 20s in the first round in previous drafts, Clausen’s slipping into the second round will go down as one of the more surprising drops ever. Even worse for Clausen was the fact Tim Tebow went ahead of him when the Broncos picked the Florida QB with the 25th pick in the first round. Clausen was considered the second-best quarterback coming into the draft. To lose out to Tebow, who had to tweak his delivery to enhance his standing, is further embarrassment. For Clausen, things could get worse. Could the Cleveland Browns take Colt McCoy over him? Will the Buffalo Bills bypass him? Clausen clearly didn’t leave Notre Dame with a year of eligibility remaining to not go in the first round. This was a disaster.
2. What is Josh McDaniels doing? Tebow might be the most interesting selection of Day 1, but why Denver? After going 2-8 down the stretch in 2009, a bad start to the 2010 season (and a losing season) could put McDaniels’ job in jeopardy. McDaniels inherited an offense in Denver that didn’t need a lot of change. QB Jay Cutler was coming off a 4,500-yard season in 2008, and Brandon Marshall was a 100-catch receiver. Like Quinn, whom McDaniels picked up for virtually nothing, Tebow is a developmental quarterback. The question facing the Broncos’ organization is whether McDaniels can earn enough time to succeed with developmental quarterbacks. Current Denver starter Kyle Orton may just have this year left at quarterback under these circumstances. McDaniels put together an old defense in his first year on the job, and it faded down the stretch. He’s had to redo his defensive line and make upgrades at linebacker during this offseason. I’m not sure the Broncos have the luxury of developing Tebow under these circumstances.
Yes. I know you don’t go in without a game plan….
What I’m saying is that I’m not the coach. I’m not a player. I’m not even a Denver Post beat writer who watches practices. So, I don’t know if McCoy’s play calling is the problem. If Tebow’s mechanics can or can’t be fixed.
I don’t care. I don’t have any control over that. So, do whatever you (Broncos) need to do in order to get the W.
And running it 55 times did work. (at least once).
New blog
BTW, totally with Turtle on the Garland and Unrein thing, who in their right mind could think that those two have a shot at becoming anymore than a backdrop in the NFL. And Vickerson is a keeper too. Vick, Thomas and Bunk, the rest is blah, blah, blah and too bad Warren is damaged goods standing to earn 4 mil in salary plus a one and quarter mil in bonus money this year.
Orange, I posted a link this morning to Elway’s radio show, where he addressed that very thing yesterday. Perhaps, you might want to listen to it. He, and Fox both, have plainly stated that the option was only used in the interim to get Tebow acclimated to the speed of the game, since he basically came off the bench cold, and he was familiar with it. They will soon be looking at the direction they want to take the offense next year, and Elway is looking forward to working with Tebow this off season, so he said.
What so many people don’t realize is the Patriots also run the option, but Brady never opts to run the ball himself, for obvious reasons. Furthermore, most NFL teams have evolved to the spread in one form or another, which is designed to make defenses defend all eleven players, but if they don’t run the QB, they don’t consider themselves a spread offense, even though they are still spread out.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s much ado about nothing, and after Tebow got his feet wet, it wasn’t used nearly as much as people think it was. Even so, using it some can help keep defenses honest. I just want to give the kid an off season and training camp and then see what his coaches say about his progress after then.
1st Round – Dwayne Allen TE Clemson
2nd Round – Chris Polk RB Washington
3rd Round – Antonio Allen SS South Carolina
4th Round – Alameda Ta’amu DT Washington
5th Round (St. Louis Conditional Pick) – Michael Brewster C Ohio State
5th Round – James Michael-Johnson ILB Nevada
6th Round – Jeff Fuller WR Texas A&M
7th Round – Russell Wilson QB Wisconsin
As far as I know we don’t have a sixth round pick, it was traded to the Eagles for Mays.
Hey bay thanks for the heads-up I didn’t even realize that..
Hey Bay, I also realized in the Brady Quinn trade we also received a conditional pick somewhere around sixth round which would give us that sixth round pick back.