Okay, we understand that these kinds of things are borderline clickbait, but we don’t care because a packed sports bar is one of our favorite places to enjoy a cold draft beer, especially now that it’s NFL season.

Here’s the deal…

Just in time for football season, The Action Network analyzed 58,701 customer reviews covering nearly 1,000 local sports bars to determine the best sports bar in every state.

And rather than simply crowning the biggest sports bars or national chains, the study looked at the things that actually matter when you’re watching a game: atmosphere, the number of screens, beer taps, wings and, maybe most importantly, how enthusiastically customers talked about the place.

The results turned up plenty of great neighborhood hangs, local legends and serious beer destinations.

Dave’s Sports Bar and Grill in Atlanta took the top spot nationally, earning a perfect 100 out of 100 on The Action Network’s enthusiasm index.

But bigger clearly wasn’t always better.

Neighborhood taverns like DB Cooper’s in Missouri and Pour Decisions in Wyoming ranked among the best sports bars in the nation, beating out much larger venues thanks to the kind of passionate local following that can make a great sports bar feel like a second home on Sundays.

Then there were some established local favorites in the mix as well. Moose’s Tooth in Alaska and O’Connell’s Sports Pub in California both took top honors in their respective states.

And the beer mattered.

In Vermont, Blackback Pub stood out in part for its food and serious craft beer selection, while Social Beer Garden HTX took the Texas crown with an approach that goes well beyond the traditional sports bar draft lineup.

Because while the NFL on giant televisions is great and a room full of people screaming at the same questionable call is always entertaining, if we’re spending three hours watching football somewhere, the beer better be good.

The Best Sports Bar In Every State

Methodology

For those of you who care how The Action Network arrived at its picks, here’s the methodology, minus some of the algorithm-speak.

1. An automated search identified the top 20 sports bars and taverns in each state. Corporate chains were removed, leaving 982 candidates.
2. The Action Network then analyzed 58,701 customer reviews covering 949 active bars, along with each venue’s Google star rating and total number of reviews.
3. Reviews were searched for what the researchers call “passion markers,” including references to game-day atmosphere, packed crowds, TVs and big screens, wings, craft beer and other signs that customers actually enjoyed being there.
4. Each bar received a score from 0 to 100. Review language accounted for 50% of the score, Google ratings for 35%, and overall review volume for the remaining 15%.

The highest-scoring bar in each state won.

Is this a perfect scientific measurement of America’s best sports bars? Probably not.

But it did involve almost 59,000 reviews and, more importantly, beer, wings and football.

That’s good enough for us.