Football Fans Weigh In On Vick, Favre
Two of the more compelling stories in the National Football League this year are the resurrection of Michael Vick’s career and the impending end of Brett Favre’s.
A new Rasmussen Reports survey of 3,300 professional football fans shows that 47% view Vick favorably, while 55% see Favre in a favorable light. Meanwhile, 43% have an unfavorable opinion of Vick and 39% view Favre unfavorably. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
After spending nearly two years in federal prison for sponsoring a dog fighting operation, Vick is now having an MVP-type season for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Men seem much more willing than women to forgive this blemish on his record. Fifty-three (53%) of men have a favorable opinion of Vick while only 38% of women feel the same way.
There is also a fairly significant racial divide on Vick. Ninety percent (90%) of black football fans have a favorable opinion of Vick, while just 38% of whites have a favorable impression of him. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of blacks view him Very Favorably, compared to just nine percent (9%) of whites.
Not surprisingly, 75% of those who want the Philadelphia Eagles to win the Super Bowl have a favorable opinion of Vick. This is by far the highest among teams surveyed. The next highest rating came from Atlanta Falcons fans (54%), where Vick played the majority of his career before being sent to prison.
In 2007, just after Vick was indicted 57% of all adults had an unfavorable opinion of him.
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The survey of 3,300 Adults nationwide was conducted on December 14-15, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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