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The Miami Dolphins were the first NFL team to ever lose a regular season in London. They kicked off the league’s experiment of playing in Wembley Stadium back in 2007 with a 13-10 loss to the New York Giants.
Well, this past Sunday when the Vikings and Steelers played in Wembley, the Wall Street Journal made an informal count of team jerseys, and found that the Dolphins were the fourth most represented team.
They found 64 Londoners wearing Patriots jerseys, 43 wearing Packers jerseys, 32 wearing Giants jerseys, and 27 wearing Dolphins jerseys. Those first three teams are all recent Super Bowl winners.
“Somewhat surprising was the popularity of the Miami Dolphins, who haven’t been to a Super Bowl since 1985,” wrote the WSJ. “At least four fans reached back to those days by wearing Dan Marino tops.”
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But the Dolphins enduring popularity over in the UK isn’t totally surprising. For one, the NFL did do some research on teams that were popular in England before sending the Dolphins and Giants over there in 2007.
NFLUK.com reported last year on polls taken of English fans who attended NFL games at Wembley in 2007, 2009 and 2011 also found that the Dolphins were popular. In 2007, 26 percent said they were Dolphins fans, more than any other team. In the following years, even though the Dolphins weren’t playing, they still finished in the top six teams.
Of NFLUK.com site users who have registered and selected their favorite team, 7.1 percent said that the Dolphins were the favorite team. Only the New England Patriots had more fans on the site with 9.5 percent.
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