Okay, so, I’ve been wondering about something lately, and I figured I’d share my little investigation with you all. The question that’s been bugging me is: Does Mississippi have an NFL team?
First off, I started digging around to see what I could find out about Mississippi and its sports scene. I mean, it’s not the tiniest state, but it’s not exactly a giant either. Turns out, the big sports leagues, like the NFL, they need a pretty big market to set up shop. So, I started to think, do our cities in Mississippi have enough folks to support an NFL team?
Then, I did some more digging on the populations of some cities. Turns out the biggest city in Mississippi is Jackson, but its population is only around 172,000. Not a lot of people. That got me wondering, is this the main reason?
So, I kept digging. I looked into college football, ’cause that’s huge around here. We’ve got Ole Miss, and they’re part of the SEC in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision. Their games pull in massive crowds, sometimes even bigger than some pro sports teams in other states. It made me scratch my head even more. If college football is so popular, why not an NFL team?
But here’s the kicker – I found out that Mississippi has actually had some pro football teams in the past, just not in the NFL. I stumbled upon names like the Biloxi Fire Dogs and the Tupelo Fire Ants and Mud Cats. But get this, there was no mention anywhere of Mississippi’s first professional team. Kinda makes you wonder what happened there, right?
And then I found out something else. There are 32 NFL teams, but they’re only in 22 states. That means 28 states don’t have a team at all. And some states, like California, have three teams! It got me thinking about how it’s more common for states with lower populations to not have an NFL team, or at least not a second one.
So, after all this digging around, here’s what I’ve figured out. Mississippi doesn’t have an NFL team, and it looks like it’s mostly down to the size of our cities and the overall population. It’s just not big enough to support an NFL franchise, at least according to the way the league operates. But, we’ve got a strong college football scene, and we’ve had some pro teams in other leagues. So, it’s not like we’re totally out of the football game.
What do you guys think? Did I miss anything? Let me know your thoughts!
