Arizona Cardinals ranked last in Twitter followers among NFL teams

These days, the adage that winning breeds popularity might not apply to only ticket sales and merchandising profits in the sports industry.

With organizations now extending their respective brands to social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, popularity can now be measured in terms of likes, photo comments and total followers.

It’s an area that the Arizona Cardinals are apparently struggling with at the moment.

According to an online survey put out by the Wall Street Journal, the Cardinals are currently ranked dead last in Twitter followers among the NFL’s 32 teams. At the time of the poll, Arizona had just 44,245 followers — nearly 25,000 less than the next team on the list (Jacksonville Jaguars).

It seems the Cardinals aren’t the only local team in town struggling to attract online popularity, though.

The least-followed teams are typically small-city losers—or are in Arizona. When it comes to Twitter followers, the Cardinals, Coyotes and Diamondbacks rank in the bottom three in their respective sports.

Being savvy with social media doesn’t necessarily translate to on-field performance, however. While the New England Patriots (556,859 followers) were ranked No. 1 on the NFL list, the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys also made the top 3. Both teams failed to make the postseason in 2011 and 2012.

It should be noted, that several Cardinals players have adjusted just fine to social media on an individual level. Larry Fitzgerald (1,503,558 followers), Darnell Dockett (171,936 followers) and Jay Feely (70,837 followers) have each in their own right become fan favorites on Twitter.