A stop at the Salt Lake City airport on Friday had NFL media personality Kay Adams asking a question she was “embarrassed” to ask.
Since Utah is one of 28 states without an NFL team, Adams wanted to know which NFL team Utahns root for. She asked the question on X in a video she recorded of herself at the airport.
“I just clocked a Justin Herbert grown-man jersey, a child in a Jayden Daniels jersey. There’s somebody over there who had a Steelers jersey, but I didn’t see who it was,” Adams said. “If you live in Utah, are you a Broncos fan? What are you?”
Adams also shared high praise for the Salt Lake City airport on X, calling it “the coziest, Christmasiest, holliest, jolliest, airport in the country,” in another video.
“It is so cute in Salt Lake City,” the “Up & Adams” host said.
Which NFL team does Utah root for?
There are varying answers to Adams’ question about Utah’s favorite NFL team.
A 2019 Utah Policy survey found that only 35% of Utahns follow the NFL. Among those respondents, 79% have a favorite team. The Denver Broncos led all 32 NFL teams with 15% of the vote.
At the time of the survey, the Las Vegas Raiders were still located in Oakland, California, and only received 2% of votes. The team’s new home base, which is closer to the state of Utah, could affect the results if the same question was asked today.
In August, CableTV.com claimed that Utahns are most loyal to the San Francisco 49ers based on the “Google Trends search volume” from July 30, 2023, to July 30, 2024.
This could be due to former BYU quarterback Steve Young playing for the 49ers from 1987 to 1999. As a starter, Young won two MVPs and a Super Bowl.
The 49ers also have current Utah ties on the team. Punter Mitch Wishnowsky played at the University of Utah, and linebacker Fred Warner played at BYU.
Vivid Seats released its own study on Utah’s NFL alliances using “the number of tickets sold to a team’s games, from 2023 to present day per billing zip code.”
It offered a county-by-county analysis. Here’s what it found:
- Arizona Cardinals: Box Elder, Cache, Salt Lake, Utah, Duchesne, Sanpete, Iron and Kane
- Denver Broncos: Tooele, Uintah and Grand
- Kansas City Chiefs: San Juan
- Las Vegas Raiders: Weber, Davis, Summit, Wasatch, Sevier, Piute and Washington
- Los Angeles Chargers: Emery
- New York Giants: Rich, Morgan, Juab, Millard and Wayne
- San Francisco 49ers: Beaver
- Tennessee Titans: Carbon
Daggett and Garfield counties had “insufficient data” to determine a team.
How Utahns responded to Adams’ question
Several Utahns responded to Adams on X. Here are some of the responses.