Packers FanPulse, NFCCG Week: What does ‘confidence’ really mean anyway?

The Green Bay Packers still seem to be struggling to see a boost in confidence in their fan base, even as the team has just won a playoff game and heads to the NFC Championship on Sunday with a Super Bowl berth on the line.

In this week’s FanPulse survey, only 70 percent of fans answered that they are confident in the team’s direction, compared to 30 percent of respondents falling in the “not confident” or “meh” response groups. That is a bump of only five points from last week, when the number sat at 65 percent heading into the Packers’ Divisional Round game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Perhaps the question that should be asked here is not why the confidence index number remains low — relative to the other three remaining playoff teams, which are all at 96 percent or higher — but what the phrase “confident in the direction of the team” really means to Packers fans who respond to the survey. This writer, at least, takes a broad approach to consider his confidence in the broader direction of the team and its ability to compete for division titles and championships. That counts for both this season and in the next few years, and to me there is no question that I remain a consistent vote in the “confident” category.

But to others, this prompt may mean something very different. Based on the 70 percent value, it would seem that some may be answering whether they are confident in the team’s ability to win a Super Bowl this year or even just to win the next game.

In any case, here’s the graph of Packers FanPulse confidence throughout the year:

How are you interpreting this relatively broad prompt? We’d love to hear your take on it in the comments below.

Across the NFL, meanwhile, fans were asked to say which of the four remaining teams they hope will win the Super Bowl this year. Proving that there’s no accounting for taste across the broader NFL fandom, the Packers came in dead last, and by a fair margin.

One possibility for this is the fact that the other three franchises have not won titles in the past 25 years. Kansas City has won a single Super Bowl, beating the Vikings way back in Super Bowl IV, while the Titans/Oilers franchise has never won a championship and has only made one Super Bowl appearance in its history. Even the 49ers, a historically successful franchise, has not won a title since 1994, while the Packers have two Lombardi Trophies since then.

Here’s the overall take from NFL fans across all fandoms: