G&D aren't sure they buy WaPo's poll that says Commanders are the third most popular team in DC

The Washington Post is all about Commanders polls these days!

Over 10 days in April, WaPo put out a poll that roughly 1300 folks responded to, and one of the questions was discussed last week in the form of the Commanders name and its popularity (or lack thereof).

But another part of that poll, which Grant & Danny feel is ‘slept on,’ is that the Commanders are…the third-most popular team in DC? Now, even this web writer, thrown into the DC landscape via staff changes, knows the District lives and dies by the Commanders, so how could they be No. 3?

“That poll had the Commanders ranking behind the Nationals and the Capitals among area sports fans – so the same way that they tabulated that the Commanders name is wildly unpopular, they also found out that 59 percent of those people said they like the Nationals and 50 percent said they considered themselves a fan of the Capitals.”

Apparently it was an “are you a fan of (insert team)?” ask and the answer was yes or no, and the Commanders got 45 percent, ahead of only the Wizards at 37 percent. What?

“About six out of every 10 people said that they find themselves to answer yes, that they like the Nationals, and only 45 percent said yes to the Commanders – so at least 15 percent of people who consider themselves Nats fans don’t consider themselves Commanders fans?” Grant said. “I’m amazed by this. I don't know if I believe it. I mean, the numbers are right here, nobody made them up, but I’m not sure if they're gospel. I don't think the Commanders fan base is smaller than that of the Nats and the Caps, if that's what they're suggesting, but this is really amazing.”

Danny, though, had an idea why.

“It’s jarring to look at, and it’s hard not to notice, but here's how I view this: there's a distinction between fan and interest,” Danny said. “How many people who said they’re a fan of the Nationals are watching Bob and Franny six nights out of seven, are tracking Luis Garcia, or knew they DFA’ed Victor Robles? People are going to games, but the TV ratings say it's not this all-encompassing half the people around here who watch sports are watching the Nats nightly, and same with the Capitals. But if in terms of actively rooting for or being excited about off-season stuff with the commanders, I believe that number, but more people, even though the TV numbers have gone off a cliff, are still tuning in, and more people still give a damn about the football team. That's because it's the NFL, and that's because there's just more people here that care about it in some way, regardless of your active fandom, whether you're buying the jersey of Tyler Biadasz or not – you're still invested in some way.”

“I agree with that, but that works in complete contrast to what this poll’s suggesting, based on the 1300 fans that they polled, that there is a sizable gap between the number of sports fans in town that like the Nationals compared to who like the Commanders, and that the Commanders are third only beating out the Wizards,” GP replied. “So, are we buying the intel, and is it possible that the Commanders are actually third behind those other two teams with recent championships? And if the answer is no, because I don't really think that the Commanders have the third-biggest fan base, then what is this poll actually getting at or suggesting? Like, I think this is almost, do you have a positive connotation of that? This is a big market, and maybe it’s something that the Commanders should be worried about.”