Where does the Falcons’ fan base rank in the NFL?

If I were ranking NFL fan bases, they’d look a little something like this:

• Falcons fans (long-suffering and loyal through some really miserable experiences)
• Every fan base except for Patriots and Saints fans
• Patriots fans (We get it, y’all won a lot of Super Bowls and Tom Brady was great, let it go)
• Saints fans (28-3 had nothing to do with y’all, get a new insult)

But I might be slightly biased, so let’s take a look at these fan rankings from USA Today’s Mike Freeman and see what he thinks.

(Before you head over to Twitter to yell at Mike about this, please note that the headline on this story was: Prepare to be outraged: These NFL fan rankings are a disgrace. Even we admit it.)

The Falcons get a shoutout even before Freeman gets to his actual rankings:

And you, Falcons fans, getting to that game 90 minutes late.

Sigh.

Freeman established nine tiers of NFL fandom. Here’s how his rankings shook out:

Tier 1

Cleveland Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers
Green Bay Packers

Tier 2

Seattle Seahawks
Philadelphia Eagles
Detroit Lions
Baltimore Ravens

Tier 3

New Orleans Saints
Las Vegas Raiders
San Francisco 49ers

Tier 4

Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos

Tier 5

Washington Commanders
Cincinnati Bengals
Los Angeles Rams

Tier 6

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Carolina Panthers
Indianapolis Colts

Tier 7

Jacksonville Jaguars
Tennessee Titans
Chicago Bears
Miami Dolphins

Tier 8

New England Patriots
Atlanta Falcons
Los Angeles Chargers
Minnesota Vikings

Tier 9

Dallas Cowboys
Arizona Cardinals

Here’s what Mike had to say about the Falcons:

Kind of passionate, sometimes, a little bit.

Kind of passionate? Buddy, it takes more than “kind of, sometimes, a little bit” of passion to stick with this team through all of the silliness this team subjects us to on a regular basis. You try watching your favorite team lose its star quarterback to a federal dogfighting conviction, or a revolving door of Chris Redman, Joey Harrington, and Byron Leftwich at quarterback, or scoring just one single safety in a playoff game vs. the Giants, or alienating its franchise quarterback to try to trade for a guy facing more than two-dozen sexual harassment and assault allegations, and don’t even get me started on that Super Bowl.

Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments!