While the sports world is preparing for the World Series, pro football fans think that Bret Favre and the Minnesota Vikings might be the team to beat for the Super Bowl this year. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 1,704 NFL fans found that 17% believe the Vikings will win it all.

Polling earlier this year found that Minnesotans were unenthusiastic about having their team sign former nemesis Bret Favre. Presumably his stock with the local fans went up after he helped them beat his old team, the Green Bay Packers. A Super Bowl Championship would change the calculation completely. The Vikings went to four Super Bowls in the 1970’s without ever winning.

There is no clear favorite for the championship, but fans lean heavily to the NFC. Twelve percent (12%) pick the red hot New Orleans Saints. Eleven percent (11%) pick the New York Giants, a team humiliated by the Saints last weekend.

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The top two AFC teams are the Indianapolis Colts and the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Nine percent (9%) of fans pick each of those teams to emerge victorious at the end of this season.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of Giants’ fans think their team will win it all, making them the most optimistic fans in football. That’s no surprise since New York Yankee fans are the cockiest about their team’s chance in the World Series.

The Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints are the least confident. After years of watching great teams that fell just short, only 43% of Colts’ fans expect a title this year. As for New Orleans, a town that has hosted plenty of Super Bowls, they’ve never had their team in the big game. Just 39% of those fans think QB Drew Brees can deliver a world football championship this year.

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