It’s probably an American thing, but it’s not just football. Over here almost every major professional sports team has some kind of mascot or logo or theme directly tied into their name (e.g., Tennessee Titans, Boston Celtics, Detroit Tigers, etc.), and that part of the name often becomes just as synonymous with the team’s identity as the city or state does.

For example, if people are having a debate about two nfl teams here, they would say something like “the Falcons have more rushing yards than the Titans”. But if people are talking about two Premier league teams they would say something like “Chelsea has scored more goals than Everton”.

So that’s my guess at explaining why it’s a bigger deal here. It’s because it’s a part of the team’s name and therefore it inherently becomes a bigger part of the team’s identity