Colts fans are polite online, unlike Steelers fans

How polite are Indianapolis Colts fans on social media? Pretty polite, it would seem, compared with fans of the other 11 NFL teams involved in the playoffs this season.

Proofpoint, an online security firm, looked at inappropriate comments (profanity, hate speech, pornography, etc.) posted to a team's Facebook page during the first three weeks of January. Colts fans were guilty of such comments only 0.4 percent of the time, Proofpoint found, the fourth-best percentage among the 12 teams. Fans of the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos tied as the most polite (0.32 percent), followed by the Seattle Seahawks (0.35 percent).

The most profane? Pittsburgh Steelers fans were far and away the worst, guilty 6.15 percent of the time. They were followed by Baltimore Ravens (1.62 percent) and New England Patriots (1.13 percent) fans.

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Perhaps one reason Colts fans are so polite is their satisfaction with the football-watching environment. Wallet Hub, a financial services website, tried to identify the best cities for football fans, "based on 11 key metrics," such as success of the team, ticket prices, attendance, number of sports bars, fan engagement on social media, franchise value, etc. They found Indianapolis to be the fourth-best NFL city, behind Denver, Boston and Seattle.

Overall, among 142 cities with NFL and/or college teams, Indy ranked 14th. Strangely, Green Bay, which tied for fifth among NFL cities, was ranked No. 1 overall. South Bend, home of Notre Dame, was ranked 48th, West Lafayette (Purdue) 78th, Muncie (Ball State) 96th and Bloomington (IU) 129th.

We suspect some college football fans in this state will take issue with those numbers. Hopefully, they won't get profane about it.

The entire list:

Rank City

1. Green Bay, WI

2. East Lansing, MI

3. Pittsburgh, PA

4. Denver, CO

5. Tuscaloosa, AL

6. San Francisco, CA

7. Dallas, TX

8. Cincinnati, OH

9. Boston, MA

10. Minneapolis, MN

11. Clemson, SC

12. Atlanta, GA

13. Seattle, WA

14. Indianapolis

15. Oakland, CA

16. Tallahassee, FL

17. Baltimore, MD

18. San Diego, CA

19. Kansas City, MO

20. St. Louis, MO

21. Norman, OK

22. Glendale, AZ

23. Stanford, CA

24. Cleveland, OH

25. Lincoln, NE

26. Coral Gables, FL

T-27. Auburn, AL

T-27. Oxford, MS

29. Ann Arbor, MI

30. Washington, DC

31. Buffalo, NY

32. Boone, NC

33. New Orleans, LA

34. Bowling Green, OH

35. Miami, FL

36. Chicago, IL

37. Charlotte, NC

38. Columbus, OH

39. New York, NY

40. Gainesville, FL

41. State College, PA

42. Starkville, MS

43. Troy, AL

44. Chapel Hill, NC

45. Annapolis, MD

46. Tampa, FL

47. Athens-Clarke, GA

48. South Bend

49. College Station, TX

50. Houston, TX

51. Statesboro, GA

52. Nashville, TN

53. Detroit, MI

54. West Point, NY

55. Eugene, OR

56. Urbana, IL

57. Baton Rouge, LA

58. Manhattan, KS

59. Columbia, SC

60. Philadelphia, PA

61. Fayetteville, AR

62. Morgantown, WV

63. Athens, OH

64. Blacksburg, VA

65. Ruston, LA

66. Provo, UT

67. College Park, MD

68. Waco, TX

69. Knoxville, TN

70. Huntington, WV

71. Jacksonville, FL

72. Orlando, FL

73. DeKalb, IL

74. Mount Pleasant, MI

75. Madison, WI

76. Lafayette, LA

77. Chestnut Hill, MA

78. West Lafayette

79. University Park, TX

80. Piscataway, NJ

81. Columbia, MO

82. Boise, ID

83. Syracuse, NY

84. Bowling Green, KY

85. Corvallis, OR

86. Monroe, LA

87. Iowa City, IA

88. Logan, UT

89. Tempe, AZ

90. Oxford, OH

91. Stillwater, OK

92. Ypsilanti, MI

93. San Marcos, TX

94. Ames, IA

95. Jonesboro, AR

96. Muncie

T-97. Los Angeles, CA

T-97. Salt Lake City, UT

99. Toledo, OH

100. Greenville, NC

101. Storrs, CT

102. Reno, NV

103. Lawrence, KS

104. Louisville, KY

105. Lubbock, TX

106. Murfreesboro, TN

107. Boca Raton, FL

108. Kent, OH

109. Hattiesburg, MS

110. Berkeley, CA

111. Kalamazoo, MI

112. Austin, TX

113. Laramie, WY

114. Pullman, WA

115. Amherst, MA

116. Moscow, ID

117. Honolulu, HI

118. Memphis, TN

119. Denton, TX

120. Fort Worth, TX

121. Boulder, CO

122. Fresno, CA

123. Tucson, AZ

124. Fort Collins, CO

125. San Antonio, TX

126. Charlottesville, VA

127. Durham, NC

128. Evanston, IL

129. Bloomington, IN

130. Las Cruces, NM

131. Raleigh, NC

132. San Jose, CA

133. El Paso, TX

134. Norfolk, VA

135. Lexington, KY

136. Winston-Salem, NC

137. Albuquerque, NM

138. Colorado Springs, CO

139. Akron, OH

140. Mobile, AL

141. Tulsa, OK

142. Las Vegas, NV