TEMPE, Ariz. -- Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight.com, recently ranked the most searched professional sports teams through Google Trends.
He did two case studies -- one by league and one overall.
Among NFL teams, the Arizona Cardinals were the third least searched, ahead of only the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars. Arizona finished barely behind the Houston Texans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The most searched team in the NFL was, to no surprise, the Dallas Cowboys. Green Bay, Philadelphia, New England and Pittsburgh rounded out the top 5.
San Francisco was the most searched NFC West team and the ninth-highest searched team in the league.
When Silver and Ritchie King, a science reporter for FiveThirtyEight.com, compiled a rankings of how teams in the NFL, Major League Baseball, NHL, NBA, Canadian Football League, Major League Soccer and Liga MX -- Mexico's top professional soccer league -- fared against each other, the Cardinals once again finished as the third lowest NFL team. But Arizona was searched more than eight MLB teams, including the Angels and Diamondbacks; more than 20 NBA teams including the Suns, Pacers, Clippers and Thunder; and more than 21 NHL teams, including the Coyotes, Rangers and Penguins.
Even though they may not be a popular search item among the NFL, the Cardinals proved that football is still more popular than some of the best teams in other leagues.