There are very few NFL teams that have the history of the Miami Dolphins. Unfortunately to a lot of people, that history is ancient. That could be a major reason why Dolphins’ rooters were named the 32^nd best group of fans in the league in a recent marketing analysis done by Emory University. That’s 32nd as in dead last. Even the woeful Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders had higher-ranked fans. Sadly, I’m not shocked by this study.

This analysis was in the works for three years and used hard data to come up with the results. In particular, the people at Emory used market outcomes such as attendance, prices and revenues to form their list. All you really have to do is watch a game at Sun Life Stadium to realize that fandom is far from perfect in Miami. Ever since the Dolphins dashed from the intimate Orange Bowl in the mid 1980s, it seems like they have lost any home-field advantage.

Cheering in Sun Life is usually louder when the visiting team makes a huge play. That could be traced to the fact that many of the fans that go to Dolphins’ games are transplants that have remained loyal to the squad that was their original “home” team before heading south. It is really noticeable (and nauseating) when the New York Jets or the New England Patriots are in town. For those opposing fans who don’t live in Florida, it is refreshing to take a late autumn road trip to South Beach to watch their beloved boys.

Tickets are easy to come by in Miami for those vacationers because very few locals are sucking the ducats up. Great weather forces Floridians to hit the beach on a Sunday afternoon rather than sit packed like sardines in a sun-drenched stadium. For those people who don’t like to venture to the water, there is chilling air conditioning in their homes and obscenely large HD televisions airing the event.

The real bottom line on why the Dolphins have the worse fans, however, has to do with the product on the field. There are very few die-hard, lifelong “Fish Fans” under the age of 40. Miami has won just one playoff game since the turn of this century and has only been back to the playoffs twice more since then (the last time in 2008). The Dolphins haven’t gone to the Super Bowl since 1985 when they were blown out by the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XIX. That was Dan Marino’s second season as a pro quarterback.

You remember Marino don’t you? Sadly, there is a whole host of young Dolfans who wouldn’t care less about the legend if their dads didn’t reminisce about him so much. The last dominant Dolphins player was probably defensive star Jason Taylor, and he hasn’t even played since 2011. Don’t even try to bring up names like Bob Griese, Larry Csonka or Nick Buoniconti to a kid under 20 without being looked at like you were from another universe.

In all fairness to the youth of Dade County, would you cheer for the ragtag bunch of underachievers the Dolphins have trotted onto the turf the past 15 years? Even this last bunch of teams that were supposed to be contenders failed miserably down the stretch and missed the playoffs. To a lot of teenagers, if you can’t draft someone in your Fantasy Football league, he doesn’t exist. There hasn’t been a run on Miami players lately in most drafts. Hopefully, an influx of new talent such as the sensational Ndamukong Suh, Kenny Stills and Jordan Cameron can mesh with up and coming homegrown talent like Ryan Tannehill, Jarvis Landry and Olivier Vernon to excite the fanbase and stimulate some jersey sales.

The fanatics that were analyzed to be the best in the NFL were the followers of the Dallas Cowboys. Like the Dolphins, Dallas has had a long and storied past, but unlike Miami, has reinvented themselves in each decade since the 1970s. The Cowboys first championship appearance was in Super Bowl VI. They won that game and four more over the next 25 years.

The team Dallas beat to earn that first Lombardi Trophy was the Dolphins. Now, if those two teams were to have a rematch in Super Bowl 50, I’m sure Dolphins’ fans would come out of the woodwork. Then perhaps it would move Miami from worst to first on that Emory University list.

Nik Zirounis is an NFL/Miami Dolphins writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @realnikz and like him on Facebook