Another day, another highly scientific study of sports fandom. And yet another public relations disaster for the Washington Redskins, who apparently have some dumbass — and vocal — supporters.
Grammarly, an automated proofreading company, can use algorithms to check writing for more than 400 types of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Armed with this, the Count did the one thing that made the most sense: Make Grammarly rank each NFL fan base on its writing skills. To do so, they reviewed 150 reader comments that were at least 50 words long from the news section of each NFL team website (12,728 total words, on average, per team). The Redskins finished dead last with 16.5 mistakes per 100 words—roughly 30% worse than New Orleans Saints fans, the NFL’s second most typo-prone fan base.
Ah, yes. Internet comments never lie.
On the other end of the spectrum, long-suffering Detroit Lions fans finally have a title to call their own.
It should be noted that there was no real correlation between losing and grammar/spelling errors, as the New England Patriots fans were the fourth worst in Grammarly’s sample. Top English honors went to the Detroit Lions, who averaged just 4.2 mistakes per 100 words. Lions fans were also tied with Browns fans for fewest spelling mistakes. It’s possible this is just a byproduct of having to use the word “Ndamukong” less often. That burden is now on Miami Dolphins fans.
You hear that, rest of the NFL? You can say all you want about one playoff win since 1957 but dammit if the good people of Michigan aren’t the best at differentiating between “you’re” and “your.”
Another thing the study confirmed is that fans who comment on news stories aren’t exactly the cream of the mental crop. On the other hand, they made less grammatical errors than NBA and NASCAR fans. Big surprise there.
In an additional bit of meta commentary, I’ve made the conscious decision not to proofread this post. I’ll update with my own rating in an hour.
It’s going to be pretty embarrassing if I’ve dumber than a Redskins fan but, hey, accountability is important.
[H/T: Wall Street Journal]