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It's impossible to truly gauge who the most liked and hated NFL franchises are, but FOX Sports gave it a try anyway. The list covers all 32 NFL franchises and ranks them based on their likeability from neutral parties.
Coming in at No. 1 are the Pittsburgh Steelers, the most successful franchise in the history of the league.
They win consistently, which is nice. But they don't take shortcuts to success, as the Steelers don't buy their championship rosters. There's something honorable about rooting for a team that is loyal and has work ethic.
It's easy to like a winner, and no franchise has won more in the Super Bowl era than Pittsburgh. That said, they've missed the playoffs three of the past five seasons, and are slowly losing their lustre.
Right behind the Steelers were the Packers, and those two franchises have combined for 10 championships in 13 Super Bowl appearances. The Bills came in at No. 3, which isn't too hard to believe since they advanced to four Super Bowls in the 90s.
As for the No. 4 team: The lovable losers that are the Cleveland Browns have yet to advance to a single Super Bowl.
One certainly wouldn’t jump on the Browns bandwagon because they wanted enjoy easy victory; instead, it’d be about being a part of a group that has endured a lot of pain in search of eventual victory.
As for the Bengals, they came in at No. 16:
Someone would have to be searching for punishment if they willingly chose to be a Bengals fan, as the franchise has been mired in mediocrity (at best) for two decades. But there have been sparks of hope the past three seasons.
Five teams ranked ahead of the Bengals have yet to win a Super Bowl, and six of them have as many or few Super Bowl appearances then the Bengals.