Michael Schaffer notes that the Washington Redskins can't even get a majority of fans in their hometown, as only 48 percent of residents claim the team as their favorite.
Some of this, of course, is a function of D.C.'s fabled transience. Among those surveyed who live within 50 miles of where they went to high school, roughly two-thirds are pro-'Skins. Those who've been in town less than a decade are more likely to support another team than they are to embrace the Burgundy and Gold—which may not be a surprise given the decade that the franchise has had.
African Americans—who are also more likely to be longtime residents—also tend to be more pro-Redskins: 60 percent of black respondents embraced the team, while only 32 percent of white people surveyed call the Redskins their favorite. On the other hand, the Cowboys pulled down a respectable 9 percent in the black community, while they got negligible support from white voters.
I think it's also a function of something else -- as any longtime Skins fan can tell you, there's a sizable pro-Dallas contingent despite the fact that the Cowboys are supposed to be D.C.'s hated rivals. The history here is uglier than you might think -- the team's first owner, George Preston Marshall, was an avowed racist who gave the team an obviously racist name, resisted integration of the NFL as long as he could, and threw "fight for old Dixie" into the team's original fight song. He opposed Dallas being added to the league because he saw the Skins as a kind of flagship team for the South and didn't want any rivals. D.C.'s pro-Dallas, anti-Skins contingent is partially an inheritance of the city's black residents acting in defiance of a team owner that hated them.
Of course, the Skins ultimately became the first team to win a Superbowl under the leadership of a black quarterback, Doug Williams, which probably has a lot to do with the city's black residents learning to love the team despite its racist past.
