What do you do when you’re a Kansas City Chiefs fan living deep in enemy territory? What do you do when you live somewhere surrounded by a mortal enemy, encircled by fans of a team you were born to despise with every fiber of your being?
I live in Broncos Country.
When I say “Broncos Country," I should explain that I don't live in Denver, Colorado, or even the Mountain West. I’m talking about living in an entire country—a fully-fledged sovereign nation—that is (apparently) obsessed with the Denver Broncos.
It sounds like a nightmare for any Chiefs fan, right? It’s the reality I’m living in.
I’m a lifelong Chiefs fan born and raised in Australia. It’s a great place to live. It has gorgeous beaches, great weather, and amazing wildlife. But this week I learned it also has a potentially unforgivable flaw.
NFL Memes posted a graphic this week showing the most popular NFL team in countries around the world based on Google search data. What it revealed shocked me: Australia’s most popular team is the Denver Broncos.
It is literally a country full of Broncos fans, which means, it is the very definition of Broncos Country. Yuck.
It gets worse – Australia is the only country in the entire world where the Broncos were the most searched for team.
How did I not know this, and how am I meant to carry on living here now? Does that mean every time Russel Wilson said “Broncos Country, let’s ride” he was actually talking to me, and all of Australia? And how many people do I interact with every day who, it turns out, are Denver fans?
Not knowing has even deprived me of the chance to gloat in front of them all, to brag about Kansas City’s 16-game winning streak run against the Broncos, or point out it was Denver legend John Elway who handed Kansas City its second consecutive Lombardi Trophy in February.
What a missed opportunity.
Joking aside, the graphic above also revealed something else: the Kansas City Chiefs are the second-most searched NFL team in the world.
Now this data needs to be taken with more than just one grain of salt since it literally came from a self-labeled parody account. But I think it reflects a genuine rise in the Chiefs’ popularity all over the world.
Even a decade ago, the Chiefs would have been a niche team that, outside the US, only people who actively followed the NFL would have heard of. Even then, chances are they’d have referred to them as "Kansas" or the "Kansas Chiefs".
Times have changed.
Now, thanks to the unique combination of the team’s on field success, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and of course, Taylor Swift, the Chiefs have surged to the level of being a global household name.
The Chiefs possess levels of popularity and recognition that other mega sporting brands like the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Lakers could only dream of having.
Thanks, NFL Memes, for posting a graphic that highlighting that. There were some other little nuggets that the global fan map threw out that are fun as well.
- It turns out the Cleveland Browns have huge fan bases in Mongolia in central Asia and Mali in western Africa.
- The Pittsburgh Steelers are a big deal in Namibia, and the Green Bay Packers are the most popular team in Burkina Faso.
- If you’re a Falcons fan, Senegal is the place to be.
- Arizona and Tampa Bay enthusiasts can find like-minded friends in Vietnam and the Philippines, respectively.
As for me living in Broncos Country, it all might prove too much to deal with. Maybe I’ll move to Greenland or New Zealand instead.