The Great Dan Steinberg was on the Lavar and Dukes Show on WJFK-FM on Tuesday afternoon still talking up the Washington Post’s poll of area sports fans.

TGDS™ sounded surprised at the number of folks who told the surveyors that they don’t like the Washington Redskins more than they don’t like other pro franchises in the market.

From his story about the results:

Among all area sports fans, 34 percent express unfavorable views about the Redskins, compared with 26 percent for the Wizards, 12 percent for the Nationals and low single digits for the Capitals and D.C. United. Among avid sports fans, 14 percent have a “strongly” unfavorable view toward the Redskins. Among the other teams, only the Wizards, at 10 percent, have a strongly unfavorable score in double-digits.

Steinberg was apparently unaware that Washington City Paper surveyed area residents last fall about a number of issues, including their of the Washington Redskins.

Had Steinberg read our poll, he probably wouldn’t have been so surprised by his. He might not have even bothered with the new survey.

The takeaway finding of the 2010 City Paper poll, remember, was that only 48 percent of those polled called the Redskins their favorite NFL franchise. That’s pretty weak support in what is stereotyped as a Redskins town.

And until the emergence of Rex “Montana Without the Rings” Grossman in the last couple weeks, the likability levels of the squad and those who run it had only sunk since our pollsters dialed randomly.

At the time our survey came out, City Paper editor Michael Schaffer crunched some numbers and decided the flimsy support for the home team was attributable to our town’s “fabled transience” and the team’s losing ways:

Among those surveyed who live within 50 miles of where they went to high school, roughly two-thirds are pro-‘Skins. Those who’ve been in town less than a decade are more likely to support another team than they are to embrace the Burgundy and Gold—which may not be a surprise given the decade that the franchise has had.

However, the Post‘s poll did dig much deeper into the dark side of locals’ rooting interest than City Paper‘s did. Their survey also looked into the dislikability of the management of the local teams, and in doing so might well have hit on a key reason less than half our town’s denizens now bleed burgundy and gold: A whopping 54 percent of respondents said they view Redskins owner Dan Snyder unfavorably.

For context, the most-despised non-Redskin was Ted Lerner, but only 9 percent of those surveyed checked the unfavorable boxes even for him.

Lerner’s comparatively low number in that category tells me that transience and losing don’t explain Snyder’s level of unfavorability. I think selling beer in the bathrooms might.

Meanwhile, “less than 1 percent” of respondents expressed an unfavorable view of  Ted Leonsis.

I’m no Gallup, but I think that means that for every 54 people you meet that frown on Snyder, less than one of them will frown on Leonsis.

He should give clinics.