The New England Patriots and four-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady have dominated search results in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl LIII.
Typically, you'd expect most people to be searching about the more unfamiliar team — Los Angeles isn't new to the big game, though it is the franchise's first appearance since 2002 and the city's first since 1979.
But that just isn't the case this year.
New England is making its 11th Super Bowl appearance, the most in NFL history, and ninth in the Brady-Belichick era. They're far from being the unfamiliar team in this big game. So why do they continue to dominate the headlines?
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Maybe it's because sports fans are bewildered by how the franchise has continued to perform at this level. New England has enjoyed rich success over the past two decades. An analysis from sports and political blog FiveThirtyEight designates this Patriots run, since 2001, as the greatest dynasty ever.
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Regardless, here's how people are searching across the internet:
From Jan. 23-30, search interest numbers across the country heavily favored the Patriots. Only 11 of the 50 states showed higher interest in the Rams.
Below is what the *normalized indexes showed on Jan. 30. (†100 is maximum interest; 0 in minimum interest)
New England is all-in, averaging 59 Patriots, 11 Rams:
- Maine … 59 Patriots - 9 Rams
- N.H. … 80 Patriots - 13 Rams
- Vt. … 30 Patriots - 7 Rams
- Mass. … 84 Patriots - 16 Rams
- Conn. … 28 Patriots - 10 Rams
- R.I. … 73 Patriots - 13 Rams
The rest of the Northeast concurs with its neighbors:
- N.Y. … 10 Patriots - 6 Rams
- Pa. … 9 Patriots - 7 Rams
- N.J. … 10 Patriots - 8 Rams
The South, host of the Super Bowl, is mostly Patriots, however Louisiana and Mississippi are not, which makes sense when you consider the Saints' controversial NFC title loss to the Rams:
- Texas … 8 Patriots - 7 Rams
- Okla. … 5 Patriots - 5 Rams
- Ark. … 7 Patriots - 7 Rams
- La. … 17 Rams - 6 Patriots
- Miss. … 9 Rams - 7 Patriots
- Ala. … 5 Patriots - 5 Rams
- Tenn. … 6 Patriots - 6 Rams
- Ky. … 5 Patriots - 5 Rams
- W.Va. … 6 Patriots - 5 Rams
- Md. … 8 Patriots - 7 Rams
- Del. … 9 Patriots - 6 Rams
- Va. … 10 Patriots - 7 Rams
- N.C. … 9 Patriots - 6 Rams
- S.C. … 10 Patriots - 6 Rams
- Ga. … 11 Patriots - 10 Rams
- Fla. … 10 Patriots - 5 Rams
Missouri, the Rams' former home, is the only Midwest state with a higher interest in the Rams; all other states are Patriots:
- N.D. … 6 Patriots - 6 Rams
- S.D. … 7 Patriots - 7 Rams
- Neb. … 8 Patriots - 7 Rams
- Kan. … 7 Patriots - 6 Rams
- Minn. … 5 Patriots - 5 Rams
- Iowa … 6 Patriots - 6 Rams
- Mo. … 10 Rams - 8 Patriots
- Wis. … 5 Patriots - 5 Rams
- Ill. … 6 Patriots - 6 Rams
- Mich. … 5 Patriots - 5 Rams
- Ind. … 6 Patriots - 6 Rams
- Ohio … 6 Patriots - 6 Rams
The Rams handily win the West with exceptions in Arizona, Colorado and Montana (perhaps Ozzy had something to do with that):
- Wash. … 6 Rams - 5 Patriots
- Ore. … 6 Rams - 6 Patriots
- Calif. … 17 Rams - 9 Patriots
- Mont. … 6 Patriots - 6 Rams
- Idaho … 6 Rams - 6 Patriots
- Wyo. … 7 Rams - 6 Patriots
- Colo. … 8 Patriots - 7 Rams
- Utah … 8 Rams - 7 Patriots
- Nev. … 11 Rams - 10 Patriots
- Ariz. … 8 Patriots - 8 Rams
- N.M. … 9 Rams - 9 Patriots
Since Jan. 21, Patriots QB Tom Brady has been the most-searched Super Bowl player in every instance measured by Google.
The No. 2 player has alternated between Patriots WR Julian Edelman (22 instances) and Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski (16 instances), with a taste of Rams QB Jared Goff (4 instances).
Rams RB Todd Gurley rounded out a top five.
*Google normalizes its search data to enable comparison between different dates, countries, cities, etc. In this case, it is used to compare fan bases.
†This is visually executed by indexing the data to 100, where a value of 100 is the maximum search interest for the time and location selected. A value of 50 would indicate the term is half as popular, and zero would mean no interest.
