ShareThisA quick look at the teams we love to hate:
--Miami Heat
This might be the most hated team in sports right now because of one man: LeBron James. When was the last time you saw an athlete's popularity and reputation take such a huge, sudden hit for doing nothing illegal? That's what happens when you shine a national TV spotlight on yourself while announcing you're leaving your blue-collar hometown team that you couldn't lead to a championship to go to another team in a glamorous city that is trying to buy a championship. It's not that fans want to see the Heat franchise fail as much as they want to see LeBron fail. Plus, fans don't generally like teams that simply open their wallets to purchase a championship. Either way, fans will take delight if the Heat isn't the NBA champ this season.
-- Duke basketball
Why do people hate Duke basketball so much? After all, they win, they do things the right way and they have good kids. Well, do you know why people hate them so much? Because they win, they do things the right way and they have good kids. It's all just a little too goody-goody. And doesn't it feel as if Coach K gives off this aura of Duke basketball being a cut above everyone else in every way? It's one thing to be better than everyone else. It's another to act as if you're better than everyone else, and that's how those who hate Duke feel.
-- Dallas Cowboys
What's weird about the hatred of the Cowboys is that fans started hating them when they were led by what appeared to be genuinely nice guys. Was there a classier NFL coach than Tom Landry? Was there a better citizen than quarterback Roger Staubach? Yet it was during the 1970s that the Cowboys were known as "America's Team'' -- a nickname that smacked of smugness. It's as if they appointed themselves the most popular team in the country. And their logo: a big, fat star. Their old stadium had a hole in the roof so, Cowboys faithful said, God could watch his favorite team. The hatred continued into the 1990s when they had brash coaches and players such as Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders, and owner Jerry Jones, and it continues today.
-- Notre Dame football
The same way people feel about Duke basketball is the way people used to feel about Notre Dame football. For years, Notre Dame dominated college football and took pleasure in letting everyone know that it was just better -- athletically, academically and even morally. Funny, but Notre Dame's recent struggles on the field haven't diminished the venom toward the Fighting Irish. Even though Notre Dame hasn't won 11 games in a season since 1993, college fans still are giddy whenever it goes down against a team such as Navy or Air Force or Tulsa.
-- Any team from Philadelphia
Well, except for the 76ers, who aren't good enough to dislike. It's not that the rest of the country dislikes the franchises in Philadelphia but the people who cheer for those franchises. In other words, it's the Philly fans no one likes. They pour beer, they hurl insults, they run on the fields and get Tased, they throw up on other people -- and that's what they do to each other! They treat opposing teams and fans worse. They are the rudest, crudest, most misbehaved and classless fans in the country. And they are proud of it. Therefore, the rest of the country takes joy in watching those fans suffer.
-- Toronto Maple Leafs
This franchise is the exception to the rule that teams are hated because they are so good. The Maple Leafs haven't won a Stanley Cup since 1967. But that's sort of the point. The Maple Leafs, their fans and much of the media and broadcasters who cover the team act as if the Leafs still are the most important franchise in the NHL. It's an example of arrogance for no good reason. A writer friend once had a line about the Maple Leafs that fits perfectly: The Leafs are the Yankees, minus all the winning.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service www.scrippsnews.com)
columnMust credit St. Petersburg Times.
