What makes a team hatable?

[tpasmall]

Many people have teams that they really hate in professional sports. This thread is designed for people to express this hate and let people know why they hate certain teams.

I start with the Buffalo Sabres:

1) They are the most penalized team in the league, and they still get away with not having stuff called on them.

2) Rob Ray, i just dont like him

3) They really have no talent. They rarely win fair games, without a cheap call they have trouble winning.

4) Miroslav Satan is praised like a god in Buffalo, though he isnt even producing for the team.

And on to the Detriot Red Wings:

1) They bought the Stanley Cup last year. Their payroll is so much higher than all the other teams, they were able to buy up all the sell out players- Dominek Hasek, Brett Hull, Luc Robiatalle to name few.

2) Since the team is full of Veteran players, officials constantly make call in their favor. This was even admitted by the NHL's referring commision.

Well thats all I'll do for now, so feel free to put down your most hated team.

(Note: This thread is not for flames such as "I hate the yankees because they suck". Have a valid reason or dont post here)

[Sultan Bhargash]

Me Hatee The Dallas Cowboys:

1. At their last apex in the early 90s they exuded arrogance...

2. They leapfrogged my favorite team, the Eagles, who were supposed to win it all in the 92 season but lost to dallas...

3. Penalties play into it definitely. There was a sense that the refs, America, the announcers and God were all on their side...

I remember Christmas eve or day football game in 95 or 6 a game the Cowboys were on and about to get in the playoffs, the network was just ready with a Christmas announcement from Troy and Emmitt when they won, as though it were inevitable.

They seemed to be able to spend endless money to get whatever players they needed at one point.

And everybody went on about what geniuses Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones were.

And I have a problem with Texas...

[anarchywrksbest]

I hate Arsenal!

Scummy boring gunners!

[Suppersalmon]

winnig trophies all the time and teams that say how good they were in the past (liverpool)

[JollyRoger]

Originally posted by Sultan Bhargash
Me Hatee The Dallas Cowboys

And I always respected you as an intelligent poster that agreed with me on most topics. The Eagles, with their obnoxious fans (they booed Santa Clause) and questionable tactics (Bounty Bowl) are easily hateable. Give me Jimmy Johnson over Buddy Ryan anyday. You can have Jerry Jones however. Thanks to his moves in the post-Jimmy era, Dallas has gone from America's (most hated) Team to Jerry's Kids.

Even when Eagles retire, they become broadcasters who never give the Cowboys their due. I have never heard Dick Vermeill or Ron Jaworski give the Cowboys respect (even during the 90's Dynasty) when engaged in their broadcasting or analyst roles. Cowboys-Iggles ranks as the the third or fourth most significant Cowboys rivalry (Cowboys-Deadskins is 1st, Cowboys-49whiners is 2nd, and Cowboys-Packers a close tie with Cowboys-Birdbrains).

The Eagles are by far, however, the easiest team to hate. The rivalries with the other teams are enhanced because of the number of times we have played them in significant games (NFC Championships). The Eagles, though they did win an NFC Championship against the Cowboys (near the end of the 20 Years of Glory during the middle of the Landry Years), are a rival just because they are so easily hateable.

And the Cowboys of 1992-1996 deserved to have swagger (or arrogance as you call it). As a franchise, they have been to more Super Bowls (8 if you have lost count) than the Eagles have won NFC East titles. They won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years. The Eagles do good if they go to 3 NFC Championships in 4 decades. The only team in the current NFC East not to win multiple Super Bowls. Oh, that's right, also the only team in the NFC East not to win any Super Bowl.

On the national level the 90's Cowboys never get any respect. ESPN recently ranked the top 10 NFL teams of all time. They gave a token nod to the Cowboys by giving the early 70's Cowboy team that won the Cowboys' first Super Bowl the 10th spot. Included in the top 10 were the 1991 Redskins, the 1994 49ers, and the 1996 Packers. The team that won the other three Super Bowls during that six year time period? The Cowboys. I think the 3 Cowboys Super Bowl winners would easily win a round robin tounament featuring the three above mentioned teams.

I guess I'll have to report you to John Ashcroft. Your hate for "America's Team" should be of some interest.

[Flatlander Fox]

Michigan Wolverine Football team...

1. Beat's up on weak sister conference full of lame 5 win teams

2. Called by many as the greatest college football program around, but only because of wins against lame conference.

3. Announcers talk about how great a team they have, when their team is mediocre most every year, and the rest of their conference is pathetic, which makes them the "cream of the crop"

4. Obnoxious fans who believe what the announcers are saying in #3.


Dallas Cowboys:

1. (This is a personal reason) Jay Novacek was from my hometown, and lived only a few blocks away. Since our town only had a few thousand people in it, most of the community was AWASH in Dallas Cowboy crap due to his playing there. After 4 or 5 years of Cowboy mania, I had a fierce hatred of their stupid team, stupid colors and stupid America's Team crap saying.

Besides, I'm a Rams fan.

New York Skankees and Kansas City Royals


Skankees: Paying Raul Mondesi a zillion dollars to "play" for you qualifies as a boneheaded move by a team that has too much money. Plus their fans most times believe that the Skanks would win without their gigantic payroll dwarfing everyone else.

Royals: In 1985, I went to the World Series and watched the Royals rob my favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals. If you remember, Don Denkinger made the most horrible call in MLB history, which kept a KC rally in the eighth inning of game 6 alive. The Royals went on to steal the game and the series. As an impressionable 9 year old, I bawled as my heroes got trounced by the stupid Royals. And the worst thing is that the ignorant Royals fans actually BELIEVE that their team won the series, when it was all a farce.

So every spring, I hope that the Royals have a $12.50 payroll and lose 120 games. Or better yet, get contracted.

The NBA- I used to like the Celtics and the Jazz, but ever since the NBA became a league full of thugs and criminals without anything but one on one skills, I have stopped watching.

There are more, but that's enough for now.

[Sodak]

Tho not professional, the only sports 'franchise' I hate is the university of notre dame. In particular the football team. The other sports can have their day. I have always disliked them because they have always been awarded national titles that they did not earn.

My grandpa told me about '45 - Army, 2 time defending champion (duh, everybody else's 18-22 year olds were dead or getting shot at ) plays a draw against ND. Result? ND moves ahead in the polls for the title. Not even a shared title (Same situation in '66 did end in a split, at least). '77, a pile of teams end up with only one loss, but ND gets the title. Then they stole the title from Miami in the late 80s (was it '89?). Miami scored a go ahead TD, but it's ruled a fumble - the ground an arm's length into the end zone caused the fumble. Good enough for ND.

All that might just make me shrug, but then there was the big brawl against Miami. A fight broke out, it was mayhem. Players from both sides were at fault. Sports Illustrated made the grevious error of suggesting that maybe just maybe the ND players were possibly, in some vaguely remote way, equally responsible for starting the fight. The ND vitriol flowed out of pens. Many letters to the editor lambasted SI for even suggesting that the holy ND players could have had anything to do with it. It was clearly those thugs on that prison release program known as the Miami football team who started bullying the choirboys in black and gold. How dare they suggest such a thing! The sheer arrogance was revolting, and now I loath ND football. I relish in seeing them lose, just to think about the holier-than-thou fans stewing in defeat, even if only for a week.

[gr8ful wes]

Interesting posts.

I find it very easy to hate teams who buy the championship and are rude about it. Dallas comes to mind here. They were amazing in the 90's, but man they were jerks. I loved them in the 70's when they had class, and could still put a whoopin' on others, but with grace. Tom Landry.

The Yankees are hateable also because they buy all the best players and win every year(practically) They do have some class though.

And then there are the teams that are fun to hate because they are so mediocre, not consistantly bad like the Bengals, I feel sorry for those guys. I mean the wishy washy teams like The Cardinals(footaball) or the Lions. They give false hope by occasionally beating a juggernaut, but always end the season at 7-9. Does anyone actually like these teams? The Eagles used to be in this category, and as a Pennsylvanian I tried to like them, but how frustrating. And booing Santa Clause, come on. Eagle Fans are the easiest to hate. Philly fans in general(although I will go to my grave a Phillies Fan)

In college, I love to hate any team from Florida. Yes, I am an obnoxious Big 10 fan who has unconditional loyalty to Penn State, I hate Pitt because I have to, but I hate all Florida teams because I enjoy hating them. They are semi pro atheletes who have about a 40% graduation rate(compared to over 80% in the Big 10/Notre Dame) They are virtually handed a Heisman every year, and picked to go to the championship before the season even begins. Plus the most obnoxious College fans I have personally had contact with were Florida fans.

Really though, the most fun team to hate is your rival team!!! But I am finding it easier to hate teams with crazy owners like Dallas(mavs and cowboys), Washington, Yankees,and the Raiders. Or teams with arrogant players like Deion Sanders, Terrel Owens, Michael Irving etc...

[WildFire]

I hate the Canadiens!

1. I am a Bruins fan so its as natural as a Yankees-Red Sox hatred
2. They used to buy their cups like the Red Wings last year
3. The players on that team are cheap shot artists.
4. Saku Koivu is good but he just milked his comeback last year for all it was worth.

[tcjsavannah]

I hate teams that have cost my teams any shot at a title or championship in the past.

As I'm a Toronto Blue Jays fan, this means the Tigers ('87 - Madlock took out Fernandez at 2B) and the Twins/A's (playoffs in 89/90, but at least we got some revenge on the A's in '92).

Being a Florida fan, my most hated rival is Georgia, because before Spurrier, Georgia routinely kicked our butts and kept us from getting our first SEC Championship.

Other than that, I hate any team that is plagued by bandwagon fans. This includes the Atlanta Braves. All of America loves them now, yet in '88, when they were losing 100 games, nobody admitted being a fan of them. STICK WITH YOUR TEAM THROUGH THICK OR THIN! It makes it so much better when they actually win...

[MrPresident]

I hate Manchester United. Occasionally hate is not a strong enough word. There needs to be a new word created before I can truly express how much I hate Man Utd.

[Hitro]

I hate Bayern Munich. And hate is not just occasionally not a strong enough word...
Why? Well that should be self-evident, but anyway:
They represent everything I hate.

[mordhiem]

Sucessful teams will always be hated. It's human nature: jealously, insecurity in their (or their own teams) ability etc. And the "Team X bought their way to Tournament Y" is bullcrap, how do you think they got that money? Stole it? Re-wrote a poor grannies will? No, from being sucessful, duh.

[MrPresident]

Sucessful teams will always be hated. It's human nature: jealously, insecurity in their (or their own teams) ability etc.

I don't hate Manchester United because they were successful, they are just a big rival to Liverpool. Like Celtic fans hate Rangers and vice versa.

[col]

I hate Leeds United. They are the team that introduced in the sevnties such advances as the professional foul to football and developed the fine art of time-wasting by taking the ball into the corner. They were a talented side that resorted to cheating. I've hated them ever since.

Of course, being a Man U fan since the late fifties has something to do with it too.

[Sanaz]

Denver Nuggets and Colorado Rockies. They just suck, and they make move after move to suck more. If they weren't my hometown teams, I wouldn't even know they existed.

[animepornstar]

djurgården ice hockey team...

1) they are from stockholm, actually the "fine" parts of stockholm.

2) they are always having the referee on their side.

3) the swedish ice hockey association does everything they can to help them.

4) the swedish ice hockey association staff members are mostly former djurgården players.

5) their fans don't know anything about ice hockey.

6) their audience wear business suits.

7) 50% of the ice hockey coverage in swedish media is about djurgården.

8) mats sundin is a former djurgården player.

9) players that move to djurgården (they have been the richest team for a long time, but now is their economy doing really bad ) do suddenly become stars, even if they were better in their old teams.

10) the swedish national team is runned by "djurgårdare". why else do you think we lost against belarus in the olympics?

11) they are the team that has won the swedish championship more times than any other team.

12) just because of number 11 do they have gold coloured details on their jersey.

[Darkness]

Just being from the wrong city does it for me...

[Chieftess]

hmm..

1 - They're mentioned more than your team
2 - The hated teams always wins (against you, and wins championships)
3 - They always have the best players

[tpasmall]

You forgot one chieftess

They are the hometeam, which means people in your area praise them, whether they or good or not. (Sabres for me in this case)

Id also like to mention my hate for the LA Lakers:

1) Shaq is a big tall fat guy that can knock people over when he dunks, not much skill needed there

2) Kobe Bryant is everywhere, and I hate pop-culture

3) They wear yellow uniforms!!!!!!!