What's the Most Popular NFL Team in Canada?

Oh-Canada Dec 16, 2021

Okay, first let's get one thing out of the way.

Toronto definitely deserves an National Football League team.  Toronto more than deserves to become the first city outside the United States to get an NFL franchise. Perhaps Montreal and Vancouver also merit consideration.  However, Toronto is an obvious choice and would be be an instant hit.

Okay, so an NFL team in Canada, especially Toronto might hurt the CFL and would probably kill off the Argos.  But it's likely on the horizon.

In the meantime, Canadian fans are forced to adopt teams from south of the border.  The most popular team in Canada are pretty much as expected, based largely on geography.  However, as this map shows, the most popular football teams in many nations have no rhyme, or reason.

Here's the map from TSN:

Note that based on merchandise sales, Seattle and Minnesota are the most popular NFL teams in Canada.  However, Buffalo also gets lots of love, and inexplicably, Detroit is also in the running.  I know, that's hard to believe.

Oh, and where's Green Bay?  You know, that team close to Thunder Bay.

And now, there's this:

Seahawks plan to explore opportunity to play game in Canada

The Seahawks specifically mention playing a game in Canada in their release. They say they have 3,300 Canadian season-ticket holders and have averaged 13,300 Canadian single-game ticket buyers over the last several years.

What do you think?  Who is the most popular team in Canada and would Toronto as an NFL franchise be adopted in all provinces as the national team?