Boston Sports Fans Rank John Farrell Last Among Local Managers/Coaches
BOSTON (CBS) -- Boston sports fans have spoken, and they're not particularly happy with John Farrell.
In an annual market study, 14,000 Boston sports fans were surveyed over the last week by Channel Media and Market Research. It's a scientific representation of people's opinion on the local sports teams, one that 98.5 The Sports Hub's Marc Bertrand looks forward to every year.
The New England Patriots are still far and away people's favorite team, receiving 49 percent of the votes (up from 45 percent last season). The Red Sox come in second at 26 percent, with the Bruins (16 percent), Celtics (eight percent) and Revolution (one percent) far behind.
But when it comes to those calling the shots on the respective sidelines or bench, that's where things get interesting. Bill Belichick's approval rating tops them all at 66 percent, but there's been a sharp decline for Red Sox manager John Farrell over the last few years. He received a vote of confidence from 19 percent of fans in 2014, but that dipped to just six percent in 2015.
This year, he is last on the list at just four percent, trailing even New England Revolution coach Jay Heaps (five percent).
"Could we possibly forward this along to John Henry?" joked Bertrand. "This is why I love these surveys and this research and the data. It's not 'this is just a Twitter thing,' or 'This is just a sports talk radio thing.' Wrong. This is a New England thing -- Red Sox and sports fans. They don't want John Farrell."
It should be noted that polling concluded on Monday, the same night the Red Sox tied the Toronto Blue Jays atop the American League East.
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens is second behind Belichick with 20 percent of the voting, with Claude Julien third at five percent.
