Who are the players and teams that you actively root AGAINST? Don’t count traditional rivalries–if you’re a Yankees fan, it’s going to be assumed that you root against the Red Sox. If you hate a particular player from that team more than any others, though, feel free to mention them.
Mine are Tom Brady, the Dallas Cowboys, Phillip Rivers, Tim Tebow, Chad Henne, Brett Favre, Kevin Faulk (screwed me in fantasy football too many times), the Baltimore Ravens, and Wisconsin in college football.
Dallas Cowboys.
Cowboys, Yankees, and Lakers. They’re really the only sports franchises I actively hate.
Oh, and Jeremy Shockey. Wanker.
There’s an Evil Empire ™ in each of the four major US sports that I always root against:
NFL - Dallas Cowboys. The audacity to call themselves “America’s Team;” Jerry Jones’ arrogance; the unqualified amount of attention they receive from the MSM, from their being perennial NFC favorites despite showing no real reason to be considered so, to the intense scrutiny when they fail to meet those unrealistic expectations.
NHL - Detroit Red Wings. The audacity to call themselves “Hockeytown;” Mike Babcock’s smug, self-righteous, beady-eyed face; the amount of love Datsyuk and Lidstrom (and Yzerman in the past) receive–yeah, they’re great players, shut up about it already; they get schlubs like Chris Osgood championship rings.
MLB - New York Yankees. I don’t even follow baseball, but I always root against them and I don’t think that should require an explanation.
NBA - Los Angeles Lakers. I follow basketball even less than I follow baseball, and this one, admittedly, stems almost entirely from my experience with Lakers fans when I lived in Southern California, though part of it is also due to an innate dislike of all things Kobe Bryant.
Outside of those four:
Philadelphia Flyers – Never has there been a more consistently dirty team. Fans cry about their undeserved reputation, and then defend the acquisition of guys like Pronger and Emery and Asham, the hits of guys like Mike Richards and the antics of guys like Daniel Carcillo.
Sean Avery – World Class Douche and all-around unlikeable guy.
Sidney Crosby – I probably wouldn’t mind him so much if I didn’t have to hear about him all the freaking time. Also, his mustache is pathetic. Also, Crosby apologists are among the most annoying people on the planet.
Alexander Ovechkin – Same issue as with Crosby–all the hype, plus the manufactured feud between the two–but also because he’s a reckless ogre cited as the greatest player in the game by fans and the media alike when they’re not defending his knee-to-knee hits, blatant charges and other generally borderline dirty play.
I’ve come to the conclusion that my dislike/hatred of teams and/or players (and thus what makes them villainous in my mind) is very heavily influenced by my level of interaction with their fans/supporters and my perception of their behavior, or else how much press they get (deservedly or not).
I’m truly mystified how you can hate Tom Brady. He’s a legendary football player who doesn’t stir up very much controversy (unlike Favre and Vick). He also has a genuine rags-to-riches story, being picked up as a backup QB (fourth in the Patriots depth chart) in the sixth round of the draft, before being named the starter in 2001 after Bledsoe’s injury, and leading the Patriots to their first Super Bowl title.
As a Patriots fan, I root against the Jets, but I don’t have anything against Mark Sanchez. I root against the Colts, and confess to taking pleasure in seeing Peyton Manning’s “bitter beer face” when he’s losing, but I don’t dislike the guy personally.
Would you continue to hate Tom Brady if he happened to be picked up by your team?
Anyway, I agree completely regarding the Dallas Cowboys and the NY Yankees. Bunch of arrogant bastards there. I’m glad that the Cowboys finally received their comeuppance–I wish the Yankees would, too.
Josh Koscheck, though that’s so common now as to be passe.
I used to be a big Rampage Jackson hater, but I’ll admit he showed real grace and maturity after the Machida fight.
You don’t qualify as a rags to riches QB if you were the starter at Michigan. If he was the starter at Eastern Michigan or Northern Michigan, yes, he’d be a rags to riches story. As the starter for the Wolverines, not so much.
It’s not like he walked into the job. He was a backup at Michigan for two years, starting off as 7th on the depth chart. He had to fight to become the starter for his last two years there.
After all that, he was still the 199th draft pick in 2000. The only other notable QBs from that draft year are Chad Pennington (18th pick) and Marc Bulger (168th pick), neither of whom are even remotely in the same category as Brady.
Well, there is the hairdo…
I’ll root that good things don’t happen to certain players. Currently it’s Michael Vick. Rothlisberger. Cortland Finnegan.
Historically, Dennis Rodman. Any of the dopers in baseball, especially Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Palmero, Clemens. The old standbys of Mike Tyson, John Rocker, OJ Simpson.
But there’s one guy who I absolutely rooted for bad things to happen to, like career ending injury or STDs.
Bill Romanowski. Hate that guy.
At the moment, I don’t root against any NFL team. I used to root against the Patriots, but they haven’t won a title in like 5 years so they aren’t quite as dynastic.
I root against the Lakers in the NBA. Can’t stand the players or their fans.
I also root against the Yankees and Red Sox in MLB. Partly how much attention they garner, partly their oversized payrolls.
I root against Duke in NCAAB and Boise State (go figure!) in NCAAF. Being a Cal alum, I always root against Stanford, but that’s more a matter of blind school rivalry than anything they’ve done to make me dislike them (although Jim Harbaugh is a douche. What’s your deal?).
I don’t know if I have a current one, but some from the past -
John Starks. Ugh. Whiny punk.
Kirby Puckett. Always seemed like a smug bastard, and was way overrated. But he certainly didn’t deserve all that happened to him in the end.
markdash’s post made me think of college Basketball - Kentucky, Rick Pitino and John Calipari I all wish the very least of success. Kansas is close to that.
Baltimore Ravens. I have an irrational hatred of them for no good reason, except possibly that I think Ray Lewis is a loud-mouthed bag-o-douche (don’t tell him I said that).
Whoever said Sean Avery is correct – the guy is a douchecicle who supposedly heckled an opponent for having cancer. :rolleyes: He also allegedly called Georges Laraque a monkey. (Which Avery denies, but considering the reps of the two of them, I’d believe Laraque.) “Sloppy Seconds” – how many have you spent in the sin bin, Avery?
Steve Downie – when he was in the OHL, he knocked a fellow player’s teeth out during practice because the guy wouldn’t participate in a hazing ritual. (Said hazing ritual involved standing naked for hours with other rookies in the bus toilet.)
Yep, Ovechkin’s a douche, no doubt about it, but I’d rather be around him than Avery. I’ll add his lap dog, Alexander “Bongo Player” Semin. (And if I see that commercial where the little kid goes apeshit about getting his Ovechkin jersey one more fucking time…)
Scott Hartnell – for biting Kris Letang’s hand. WTF?
Michael Vick. The big obvious.
The Dallas Cowboys have always been a bunch of egotistical shitheads.
(Am I allowed to name someone from my own team? If so, Ben Roethlisberger. I’d hang out with ANY ONE OF THE ABOVE, before I’d go anywhere near Big Ben.)
Michael Vick - duh
The Colorado Avalanche - I’m a Detroit fan all the way.
Serena Williams - Her tirade and refusal to genuinely apologize for it just revealed what a jerk she is. I like her sister, though.
Teams I dislike kind of ebb and flow. As much as I despise the other teams in the NFC East (I’m a Cowboy fan), I can’t really hate the Redskins right now - they are so pathetic. My early-mid 90’s hate for the Niners and Packers as waned. I actually stopped hating the Yankees - once, for 20 minutes, in the late 80’s due to their patheticness.
Despite this ebbing and waning I have a total irrational hatred for the Steelers that has never waned or ebbed in 47 years of life on this planet. If the Steelers could go 0-16 every year for the rest of my life I could still hate them.
NFL: Dallas Cowboys
MLB: Red Sox and Yankees
NHL: Colorado Avalanche
NBA: Celtics, Bulls, Lakers
After 1997, when my team Nebraska split the title with Michigan, I hated the Big Ten. I felt they were overrated by an overly friendly media, who always boosted them in the polls.
Now, my Huskers are joining the Big Ten.
NFL: Oakland Raiders, Michael Vick, any team that signs Michael Vick.
College: Notre Dame. Used to include Ohio State, but the Druidess is a Buckeye fan, so I’m trying to learn to tolerate them, at least against non-SEC schools.
Not sure how I left off the Steelers. Their fans are generally the douchiest in the NFL, their QB is an unrepentant douchebag at best and a rapist at worst, and I would love it if someone gave Harrison a concussion and didn’t get flagged for it.
I hate Tom Brady because he a) is a man who models Ugg boots when he’s not playing football, b) has a ridiculous haircut, c) played (if you can call getting Brian Griese’s Gatorade playing) for Michigan, d) spouts meaningless Nuke LaLoosh-esque platitudes every time he’s in front of a camera, and e) gets in front of a camera WAY TOO EFFING MUCH. He’s a Hall of Famer and quite possibly the best QB to put on a uniform that I can think of, but his insufferable smug douchiness wipes out all of that. If I had any sort of feeling that he truly appreciated the hard work of others (including several camera operators from both the Pats and ESPN) that got him where he is today, I’d like him a lot more. Instead, he procreates with multiple supermodels and is generally a giant cock. Basically, if Tom Brady had Drew Brees’ attitude, he’d be awesome.