Thanks to the Dallas Cowboys’ victory over the Detroit Lions in an NFL playoff game Sunday, a crop of rumored 2016 Republican hopefuls will have their teams represented next weekend in what could be the most high-profile game of the year.

The Cowboys will travel to Wisconsin for a showdown with the Green Bay Packers, pitting two of football’s most fervent fan bases against each other.

Each one counts among them some contenders of the political kind.

In the blue corner …

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie

Christie, a lifelong Cowboys fan despite being from territory friendly to the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants, was in the stadium box of Dallas owner Jerry Jones during the Cowboys-Lions game. (Making like Vice-President Biden, he just needed a hug.)

The possible 2016 candidate has taken flak for his rooting interests. And true to form, he doesn’t really care.

“We all know what this is about, and that’s fine,” Christie said Monday morning on WFAN. “Believe me, I would take all the abuse that I’m taking from some of these folks in return for Cowboys playoff wins. As a fan, that’s what it’s all about.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was also at the Cowboys-Lions game Sunday.

While Christie has received the owner’s box treatment before, Perry has been seen with the famous Cowboys cheerleaders, as pictured above.

In the green corner …

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

Playing the caption game: Scott Walker poses with the enemy.

Walker is sort of what one would call a “true fan” of the Packers, whose fandom includes hijinks against a rival team like this:

After spotting a fan in a Packers shirt at an event in Schofield, Wisc., on Friday, Mr. Walker took a break from his standard stump speech to tell a story.

Mr. Walker said he was touring a steel plant in West Salem with Lieutenant Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Representative Paul D. Ryan. Turns out, the plant was making the beams for the roof of the new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis.

“It’s being made by cheeseheads, how do ya like that?” Mr. Walker quipped, referring to the common cheese-wedge headgear of Packer fans.

“So me and Rebecca, we went up on that top beam and we wrote ‘Go Packers’ on it,” Mr. Walker said, to a chorus of laughter and brief applause.

Former VP nominee Rep. Paul Ryan

Much like his fellow Wisconsinite Walker, Ryan has often been photographed in Packers gear and wearing his support on his jersey sleeves. The first five paragraphs of a New York Times profile of Ryan during the 2012 presidential race included a Monday night Packers game as the backdrop. “Ryan tries to plan his schedule around Packers games and also owns shares in the team, the only nonprofit, community-held professional sports franchise in the United States,” Mark Leibovich wrote. ” ‘I am an owner,’ [Ryan] said proudly.”

The Monday night game in question was officiated by “replacement refs” as a result of an NFL labor dispute that year. The crew on duty that night for the game between the Packers and the Seattle Seahawks botched an end-of-game call that awarded Seattle the victory. The next day, Ryan was miffed — and inspired.

Paul Ryan, an ardent Green Bay Packers fan, blasted NFL replacement referees for their questionable call last night that cost the Packers the game against the Seattle Seahawks.

“I got to start off on something that was really troubling that occurred last night,” said the Wisconsin congressman and Republican vice-presidential nominee at the top of his town hall here. “Did you guys watch that Packer game last night? I mean, give me a break. It is time to get the real refs.”

But he didn’t stop there. Ryan actually tried to draw a line between the replacement refs and President Obama.

“And you know what, it reminds me of President Obama and the economy,” he contended. “If you can’t get it right, it is time to get out. I half think these refs work part-time for the Obama administration in the Budget Office.”