Alabama loves it’s football. There’s no doubt about that. So you would be forgiven for assuming that Alabama’s most googled athlete is a Bama quarterback with a model for a fiancé or an Auburn QB with Heisman hopes and 4.4 speed. Forgiven, that is, because you would be wrong.
As a matter of fact, Alabamians are apparently more likely to google a basketball player than a football player. Well, at least one basketball player — LeBron James. The megastar for the reigning NBA champs was the most searched-for athlete in Alabama over the last twelve months, according to Google search volume data.
The chart below illustrates the most googled athletes in each of the 50 States.
(click image to enlarge)
In total, LeBron was the most searched-for athlete in 23 states. Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning came in second with seven states, followed by Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who tied for third with four states each.
Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel was the only college football star to make the list. He was the most googled athlete in Texas over the past 12 months. Manziel also made the overall list of the Top 10 most searched athletes.
A few other interesting nuggets from ESPN:
- Hawaii seems to be following either Manti Te’o‘s nascent NFL career or the latest updates on his fake girlfriend scandal.
- Geno Smith was a force of nature during his time at West Virginia, and the state either misses him a lot or is following his NFL career with interest.
- People in Vermont inexplicably seem to enjoy following Tiger Woods. We’re honestly not sure why that is.
- Kansas loves Googling Andrew Wiggins — obviously — but so does Kentucky. This might be out of envy or spite. Either way, it’s a little strange.
Are you surprised LeBron is the most searched-for athlete in Alabama over all of our college football stars?
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
