Most Hated Athlete in Every State

There's no love lost here.

Most Hated Athlete in Every State

Hate is such a strong word. But when it comes to sports, sometimes it's the only feeling that fits.

Every state in America has its own bad sports memories. No matter how much people try to erase those memories, the athletes who caused them can't ever be forgotten.

These are the most hated — and hated on — athletes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Alabama: Jameis Winston

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Both

Bottom line: It was a short trip from hometown hero to hated in his home state for Hueytown, Alabama, native Jameis Winston, who was a two-sport star in baseball and football and the No. 1 dual threat quarterback in the nation coming out of Hueytown High.

Winston won the Heisman Trophy and led Florida State to the BCS national championship in 2013 with a thrilling, 34-31 win over home-state Auburn — a mix of pride and repulsion for Alabama natives.

Since then, Winston has been an almost-constant source of embarrassment for his home state off the field, with a series of disturbing allegations, and flaming out on the field after being picked No. 1 overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2015 NFL draft. Winston has been with the New Orleans Saints, mostly as a backup, since 2020.

Alaska: Roland 'Doc' Lombard

Sport: Sled dog racing

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the greatest sports rivalry in Alaska was between two champion dog mushers — young racer George Attla, a native Alaskan from a small village in the northern half of the state, and 40-something Massachusetts veterinarian Dr. Roland "Doc" Lombard.

Alaskans didn't spend much time cheering for Lombard, whose record eight world championships (all won in Alaska) stood until 2020. Attla, who had a movie made about his life titled "Spirit of the Wind" in 1979, featured a character based on Lombard.

Lombard was the ultimate carpetbagger to Alaskan sports fans — an elite athlete who came onto their home turf and ripped titles away from one of their favorite sons.

Arizona: Matt Leinart

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Matt Leinart has done some pretty thoughtful interviews over the years regarding his time as quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, who thought they had a franchise player when they selected the former Heisman Trophy winner No. 10 overall in the 2006 NFL draft.

Long story short: He didn't love it, which is fine. But Leinart liked to party hard, and after the Cardinals agreed to pay him just a shade over $50 million, his approach to the game didn't sit right with Arizona fans.

In Leinart's first two seasons, he and Kurt Warner went back and forth as the Cardinals' starter. When Leinart was benched in favor of Warner on a full-time basis in 2008, the Cardinals made it to the Super Bowl.

Arkansas: Mitch Mustain

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Both

Bottom line: Mitch Mustain reached an unprecedented level of fame in high school. No athlete in Arkansas at any level had ever been more celebrated than the Springdale High quarterback, who swept the U.S. Army All-American, USA Today and Gatorade National Player of the Year awards.

Springdale head coach Gus Malzahn was hired as offensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas, Mustain followed and went 8-0 in starts as a true freshman in 2006. But Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt didn't like Mustain's attitude and benched him for the last five games of the season as the Razorbacks went 2-3.

Malzahn bolted for Tulsa and Mustain fled for USC, where he started just one game over the next three seasons.

California: Marion Jones

Sport: Track and field

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Marion Jones was the California Gatorade Track and Field Athlete of the year twice and Track and Field News National Athlete of the Year twice in high school.

Jones won the state championship in the 100-meter dash all four years and was also the California Division I Player of the Year in basketball as a senior, when she averaged 22.4 points and 10.4 rebounds. She went on to win an NCAA title at North Carolina and also played in the WNBA.

But even in high school, doping allegations dogged Jones, who hired famed attorney Johnnie Cochran to defend her. Jones was sentenced to six months and prison and forced to return her five Olympic medals in 2008 for using performance-enhancing drugs.

Colorado: Joe Montana

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Why is Joe Montana hated in Colorado? Just look at Super Bowl XXIV for the reason.

In winning his fourth Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers, Montana delivered the most devastating individual performance in Super Bowl history, against the Denver Broncos. Montana was 22-of-29 passing for 297 yards and five touchdowns on the way to a 55-10 victory.

Over three decades later, it's still the biggest margin of victory in Super Bowl history. Montana simply reached into the Broncos' chest, Mortal Kombat-style, and pulled out their still-beating heart in front of a worldwide television audience.

Connecticut: Eric Devendorf

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: No team is hated more in the state of Connecticut than the Syracuse University men's basketball team, which is a direct result of the rivalry between 'Cuse and UConn in the old Big East Conference.

No player for Syracuse drew the ire of UConn fans more than former guard Eric Devendorf, a middling, trash-talking shooter who was suspended multiple times during his career.

Devendorf left Syracuse after three seasons and entered his name in the 2009 NBA draft, didn't get selected and played seven seasons in the NBA D-League and overseas.

Delaware: Johnny Weir

Sport: Figure skating

Hated or hated on: Hated on

Bottom line: Johnny Weir's family moved to Newark, Delaware, when he was 12 years old in order to help his burgeoning figure skating career by being closer to a skating rink and Weir's coach.

Weir graduated from Newark High School and attended the University of Delaware briefly before reeling off three consecutive U.S. figure skating championships from 2004 to 2006 and participating in two Winter Olympics.

For all of his success, Weir faced as much hate as any athlete on this list, with the worst of it coming from a group of U.S. Figure Skating officials determined to get Weir to bend to their ways. Spoiler alert: They lost.

District of Columbia: Kwame Brown

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Few overall No. 1 draft picks in pro sports history have been as universally derided as Kwame Brown, who set the Washington Wizards and basketball in Washington, D.C., back a decade after they picked him with the top spot in the 2001 NBA draft.

To put it in perspective, Brown didn't average in double digits scoring until his third season, when he averaged 10.9 points and 7.4 rebounds. Those would both prove to be career highs for Brown, who played for seven teams in 12 seasons.

Florida: Emmitt Smith

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Both

Bottom line: Hall of Fame running back and NFL career leading rusher Emmitt Smith has a complicated legacy in his home state — in his hometown of Pensacola and in his college town of Gainesville, where he starred for the University of Florida.

Complaints about Smith range from not giving back enough to his hometown to leaving the Gators out of his Hall of Fame enshrinement speech. Which both seem petty.

That being said, the enmity for Smith in Florida is very real despite him having staked a claim as one of the greatest running backs to ever play the game.

Georgia: Tom Brady

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Few losses in the history of sports have hit with the soul-sucking thunder punch the Atlanta Falcons gave their fans after blowing a 28-3 lead midway through the third quarter of Super Bowl LI against the New England Patriots.

The man behind that comeback, former New England quarterback Tom Brady, is a legitimate candidate as the most hated athlete in six different states almost based solely on his Super Bowl heroics alone.

Brady's won an NFL record seven championships. While all of them are impressive, his MVP game against the Falcons is his most incredible performance.

Hawaii: Manti Te'o

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Both

Bottom line: This probably falls under the "Most Embarrassing" athlete category, but it's hard to say that any athlete associated with Hawaii has experienced the sheer volume of scorn pointed toward Manti Te'o.

Te'o, a Honolulu native, told reporters his grandmother and girlfriend died on the same day early in the 2012 season, then reeled off one of the great defensive seasons in college football history, leading Notre Dame to the BCS national championship game and finishing as Heisman Trophy runner-up.

One problem: Deadspin writers discovered the girlfriend wasn't real, and Te'o had been lying about one of the most inspirational college football stories of the year. To say the people in his home state were embarrassed was an understatement.

Idaho: Butch T. Cougar

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: The only fictional character to make the list, Washington State's football mascot Butch T. Cougar will serve as a proxy for the entire history of Wazzu's football program. For University of Idaho football fans, that seems like one long, recurring nightmare.

No team has put it to the Vandals like Washington State. Starting in 1917 as fellow members of the Pacific Coast Conference all the way to 2016, the two schools played 64 times, and Idaho is 8-54-2 in those games.

Idaho won three straight games in the series between 1923 and 1925.

Illinois: Jay Cutler

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Jay Cutler could have been the most hated athlete in Colorado or Illinois, where he burned bridges in both states thanks to his polarizing attitude toward playing quarterback, which some critics perceived as apathy.

In this case, the critics were right. After forcing a trade from the Denver Broncos to the Chicago Bears in 2009, Cutler went 57-59 as the Bears starter over the next eight seasons and missed the playoffs for the last six seasons.

In a city defined by its blue-collar fans, when Cutler refused to go back into the 2010 NFC championship game after he sprained his MCL, he sealed his place among the most hated quarterbacks in NFL history.

Indiana: Jeff George

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: There are some people that think Jeff George may have possessed the strongest arm in NFL history. Lots of people also think George, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1990 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts, is also one of the worst teammates of all time.

The signs on George were there early. He was named Gatorade National Player of the Year in 1985 at Warren Central High in Indianapolis, then changed his mind on going to Miami after coach Jimmy Johnson wouldn't guarantee he was going to be the starter.

George played terribly and complained constantly in four seasons with the Colts before he was traded to the Falcons following the 1993 season and played 14 seasons for seven different teams.

Iowa: Larry Owings

Sport: Wrestling

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Here's how you can gauge how big the fallout was from Iowa State's Dan Gable losing to Washington's Larry Owings in the 142-pound finals of the 1970 NCAA wrestling championships. Fans were so shocked by the loss that the fact Iowa State won its second straight national title was hardly acknowledged.

Imagine how devastating an individual loss must have been to just ignore a national title. That's what it was for Gable, who was a two-time NCAA champion and 181-0 over his high school and collegiate careers before facing Owings in his final collegiate match.

"Owings-Gable" just isn't brought up in Iowa. For some, it's still an open wound.

Kansas: Sirr Parker

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: In basketball-crazy Kansas, there's still room to love other sports — most notably the Kansas State football team and its stunning success after Bill Snyder took over one of the worst programs in college football history in 1989.

Because of that success, no loss has stung more than K-State's defeat at the hands of Texas A&M in the 1998 Big 12 championship game.

Up 27-12 heading into the fourth quarter, the Wildcats were guaranteed a spot in the BCS championship game with a win, but Sirr Parker ran wild to close out regulation, and his 9-yard touchdown run in OT gave the Aggies a 36-33 win. This one will always hurt.

Kentucky: Christian Laettner

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: No athlete in Kentucky history comes close to being as hated as Duke forward Christian Laettner, who hit the most famous shot in NCAA tournament history when his turnaround jumper at the buzzer dropped the University of Kentucky in the Elite Eight in 1992.

But it wasn't the shot that made Kentucky fans hate Laettner so much. It was for stepping on the chest of Kentucky forward Aminu Timberlake earlier in the game that really got them worked up. Laettner was given a technical foul when he should have been ejected, and the rest is history.

Louisiana: Roger Goodell

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Extremely hated

Bottom line: Roger Goodell is one of the few exceptions on this list that's not an athlete, but we had to include the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as Louisiana's entry because he is so utterly despised in the state.

Goodell was the one who handed out the penalties to New Orleans Saints personnel for their role in "Bountygate." The punishments were a one-year suspension for head coach Sean Payton and an indefinite suspension for defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, along with one-year suspensions for four Saints, including star linebacker Jonathan Vilma that were later overturned.

Maine: Bill Bowes

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Bill Bowes is another exception we made for coaches and other figures. There's not a lot of sports hate rolling around in Maine, but the former University of New Hampshire head football coach fits the bill.

Bowes, who coached UNH for 28 seasons and is the winningest head coach in school history, also coached 28 games in "The Battle for the Brice-Cowell Musket" against the University of Maine.

It's a rivalry game that's been played 110 times dating back to 1903 and saw its darkest day in 1993, when Bowes and UNH ran up the score in a 63-13 win over Maine.

Maryland: J.J. Redick

Sport: Baseball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Even in the pantheon of hated Duke basketball players — three made this list — J.J. Redick stands out for both the amount of hate he generated from opposing fans and for his talent.

No group hated Redick more than University of Maryland basketball fans, who obtained Redick's cell phone number, made signs insulting his family members and invented offensive chants specifically for him.

Little did Maryland fans know they could have saved all that hate and directed it toward a player that really deserved it just one generation later — Grayson Allen.

Massachusetts: Alex Rodriguez

Sport: Baseball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: The most hated athlete in Massachusetts boils down to one simple question: Who is the most hated New York Yankee of all time? That answer is simple — former slugger Alex Rodriguez.

Rodriguez's famous dust-up with Boston Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek made it so Varitek never had to buy another beer in Massachusetts for the rest of his life, but did you know this twist of fate/hate almost never happened?

In 2003, the Texas Rangers had worked out a trade to send Rodriguez to the Red Sox for Manny Ramirez, straight up, but the MLBPA stepped in and vetoed it over A-Rod's massive salary deduction.

Michigan: Chris Webber

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Chris Webber discovered how thin the line between love and hate really is. His mental lapse in the 1993 NCAA championship game was one of the most infamous blunders in sports history and transformed him from a Michigan hero into an all-time villain.

Trailing North Carolina 73-71 with the ball and a chance to go ahead or tie with just seconds left in the game, Webber called a timeout when none were left. Michigan received a technical foul, and the win was sealed for UNC.

That was bad. What was worse was the scandal Webber ensnared Michigan in during the ensuing years. He allegedly took $200,000 from a booster and was convicted of perjury for lying about taking money. He's spent the last 30 years mostly estranged from the program, although his Fab Five teammate Juwan Howard is now the Wolverines' head coach.

Minnesota: Gary Anderson

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: The Atlanta Falcons pulled off one of the biggest upsets in football history when they defeated the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings in the 1998 NFC championship game.

Gary Anderson became the first NFL kicker to convert every field goal and PAT during the regular season in 1998 but missed a 39-yard attempt that would have guaranteed the win for the Vikings with just over two minutes left in regulation.

The Vikings had seemed invincible following a 15-1 regular season, but the loss demoralized their fanbase for the next decade.

Mississippi: Rafael Palmeiro

Sport: Baseball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Rafael Palmeiro may have been a good fit for Maryland, but we went with Mississippi because of his time in college playing for Mississippi State, where he was famously part of the "Thunder and Lightning" duo alongside fellow future MLB All-Star Will Clark.

Palmeiro ostracized himself from Mississippi State fans because of his treatment of Clark during their college days, when he bristled at being in Clark's shadow. That fissure is why they only played in the College World Series once.

Want fans to hate you? Be selfish and ruin a sure thing because of your ego.

Missouri: Lin Elliott

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Mention Lin Elliott to a Kansas City Chiefs fan and see what kind of reaction you get. It will look like they just bit into a lemon.

Elliott's moment of infamy came in the 1995 AFC playoffs. After clinching home-field advantage with the AFC's best record, Elliott shanked field-goal attempts from 35, 39 and 42 yards in a 10-7 playoff loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

Since football is such a team sport, it's hard to blame losses on just any one player. In this case, it wasn't so tough.

Montana: Ryan Leaf

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Few athletes have embarrassed their home state as much as Ryan Leaf did.

The Great Falls native was the pride of Montana when he led Washington State to the 1998 Rose Bowl and was the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers that year. The pride didn't last long.

Leaf's poor attitude and work ethic had him out of the NFL after four seasons, and he spiraled into a decade-plus of arrests and substance abuse issues that ended when a Montana judge sentenced him to seven years in prison in 2012 on burglary and drug charges.

He was released in 2014 and works as an ambassador for sober living houses and is a radio/TV analyst for college football.

Nebraska: Eric Crouch

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated on

Bottom line: Eric Crouch is a Nebraska native who won the Heisman Trophy playing for the University of Nebraska in 2001, but for some reason, he is looked at as "meh" in the eyes of many Cornhusker fans.

We've identified several reasons why they feel this way. The first is that Crouch threatened to transfer when he lost the starting quarterback job as a sophomore — a red flag to fans who appreciate toughness in the face of adversity.

The second reason is how that Heisman-winning season ended, with a 62-36 loss to Colorado in the Big 12 Championship Game and a 37-14 loss to Miami in the BCS championship game.

Nevada: Bobby Hurley

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Diehard sports fans in Nevada are a different breed, living in a major metropolitan area with no pro sports team until the last few years.

That fandom has largely been directed toward one team in the past — UNLV men's basketball. And that fanbase suffered the kind of heartbreak that doesn't come along very often when they were upset by the Duke Blue Devils in the 1991 NCAA Final Four.

The loss came one year after beating Duke by 30 points in the Final Four. Not only that, but the Rebels were two wins from back-to-back NCAA championships and an undefeated season.

No player on Duke's roster epitomized the loss for UNLV more than sophomore point guard Bobby Hurley. Trust us when we tell you that it still stings.

New Hampshire: Bode Miller

Sport: Downhill skiing

Hated or hated on: Both

Bottom line: Bode Miller isn't necessarily hated in New Hampshire, but the most famous athlete in the history of the Granite State did call himself "the most hated athlete in Olympic history" after he partied away his shot at a gold medal (or any medals) in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy.

Miller, who returned to the Olympics and won a gold medal in the super combined in 2010, blamed the media for the hate that came his way in 2006 and beyond.

New Jersey: Sean Avery

Sport: Hockey

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Few players in NHL history have been as hated as Sean Avery, who played 13 seasons from 2000 to 2012. Never was the hate as sharp as when Avery's teams faced the New Jersey Devils.

Avery had a bitter, personal feud with Hall of Fame goalie Martin Brodeur that resulted in the NHL instituting "The Avery Rule" to prevent players from face guarding goaltenders. Brodeur also refused to shake Avery's hand after games.

There's empirical data that backs up this pick as well. Avery was actually voted "The Most Hated Opponent in Devils' History" by New Jersey fans in 2020.

New Mexico: A.J. Foyt

Sport: Auto racing

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: The Unser family is one of the greatest in the history of auto racing and have a devoted following in their native New Mexico, which means that if you cheered for the Unsers to keep racking up Indy 500 wins, then you had to cheer against A.J. Foyt.

Foyt, the only driver to win the Indy 500 (which he did four times), Daytona 500, 24 Hours of Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans, actually had a good relationship with the Unsers. Bobby Unser and Al Unser were his main foes for most of his era.

New York: Reggie Miller

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: You don't have to go far in New York to find a sports fan who hates Reggie Miller with the heat of 1,000 suns. The Hall of Fame shooting guard for the Indiana Pacers earned the nickname "Knick Killer" with his prodigious clutch shooting against the Knicks.

Never was that on display more than during Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference finals. With the Pacers trailing the Knicks 105-99 with 18 seconds left, Miller scored eight points in nine seconds to lift the Pacers to a 107-105 win.

Miller's taunting of long-suffering Knicks fan, New York native and Oscar-winning director Spike Lee added to his legend and cemented his place in the annals of New York's greatest sports enemies.

North Carolina: Rashad McCants

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: It's hard to be universally hated in North Carolina basketball circles. Usually, the faction of fans from the school you played for drowns out most of that noise.

It should've been easy to love former University of North Carolina star Rashad McCants after he led the Tar Heels to the 2005 NCAA championship. It wasn't.

McCants compared UNC to a "prison" during his playing career, then left school early for the NBA draft, where he was a lottery pick but only played four seasons before he washed out of the league.

In 2014, McCants came out of nowhere to throw his former program, teammates and head coach Roy Williams under the bus with accusations of widespread academic misconduct and fraud in a wide-ranging ESPN interview.

North Dakota: Roger Maris

Sport: Baseball

Hated or hated on: Hated on

Bottom line: Roger Maris is arguably the greatest athlete to ever come out of North Dakota, where he was a two-sport star at Shanley High in Fargo.

Maris turned his back on a college football career to play baseball and landed with the New York Yankees via a trade from the Kansas City Athletics in 1960, which is when the haters really came for Maris.

The person leading that parade was MLB commissioner Ford Frick and New York Daily News sports writer Dick Young, who called into question the legitimacy of Maris breaking Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in 1961, which led to death threats for Maris.

History has been far more kind to Maris than his contemporary critics.

Ohio: Earnest Byner

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: The Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns played in the AFC championship game in 1987 and 1988 with the Broncos winning both times in dramatic fashion.

In 1988, Cleveland running back Earnest Byner fumbled at the Broncos' 1-yard line with 1:12 remaining in the game. The touchdown would have brought the Browns to within one point and likely tied the game on the PAT. Instead, the Broncos ran out the clock and took an intentional safety for the win.

The play took on legendary status, becoming known as "The Fumble" and the defining moment of Byner's career. Cleveland sports fans have long memories.

Oklahoma: Kevin Durant

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant and his teammates blew a 3-1 lead against the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Western Conference finals, then Durant signed with the Warriors as a free agent following the season.

Durant won back-to-back NBA championships with Golden State, but what he thought would burnish his legacy did no such thing.

Few free-agent signings have been met with such derision. In one day, Durant went from one of the most beloved athletes in Oklahoma history to Public Enemy No. 1. And guess what he did after three years with the Warriors? Left them, too. Durant is now with the fourth NBA franchise in his storied career.

Oregon: Tonya Harding

Sport: Figure skating

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Portland native Tonya Harding was a beloved sports figure in her native state until 1994, when the former U.S. figure skating champion and her husband, Jeff Gilooly, orchestrated an attack on rival figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.

Kerrigan recovered from the attack in time to win a silver medal at the Winter Olympics that year. Harding also participated but didn't medal.

Harding ultimately pled guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution in criminal court and was banned for life by U.S. Figure Skating on June 30, 1994.

Pennsylvania: Ben Simmons

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Philadelphia sports fans are among the most discerning and — let's be honest — brutal in the U.S. because the thing they value the most is toughness.

Former No. 1 overall draft pick Ben Simmons is the opposite of tough, and his play in the 2021 NBA Playoffs, when he passed up a dunk that led to losing a series made him the ultimate target. That Simmons followed that up by doubling down and refusing to play the next season made him doubly hated. Truly a basketball player with no guts.

Rhode Island: Marvin 'Bad News' Barnes

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: The name says it all for Marvin "Bad News" Barnes, who became a somewhat mythical figure in professional basketball history thanks to his exploits in the ABA, where he once refused to board a plane traveling from one time zone to another that would land at the same time it took off by stating "I ain't gettin' in no damn time machine."

Barnes attempted to rob a bus in his hometown of Providence when he was in high school. He was identified because he was wearing his letter jacket during the robbery. In college, also at Providence, he put another mark against his name when he attacked a teammate with a tire iron after he caught an errant elbow during practice.

South Carolina: Stephen Garcia

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Sports fans don't have a problem rooting for the anti-hero. There's a long list of anti-establishment athletes who have endeared themselves to fan bases over the years.

One thing fans won't stand for is wasted talent or blowing second chances, which is essentially the story of former University of South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia, who was continually given the keys to talented offenses and continually blew it.

Garcia was a four-year starter who was suspended five times during his time at South Carolina for a variety of alcohol-related offenses before finally getting kicked off the team halfway through his senior season.

South Dakota: Mike Miller

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated on

Bottom line: Just to be completely clear, Mike Miller is a beloved athlete in South Dakota. The 2001 NBA Rookie of the Year was born and raised in Mitchell, South Dakota, and starred at Mitchell High in the late 1990s.

What Miller wasn't was beloved by most of the NBA throughout his 17-year career, constantly dicing up opponents from beyond the 3-point arc before winning two NBA championships with LeBron James on the Miami Heat. Whenever Miller played, you could be sure the haters were out in full force.

Tennessee: Vince Young

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: The Tennessee Titans thought they had their franchise quarterback for the next decade-plus when they selected Vince Young with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft and signed him to a five-year, $58 million contract.

What the Titans and their fans got instead was a player who spent the next five seasons alienating teammates and coaches and losing his starting job on an almost-yearly basis before he was given an outright release.

The Titans knew then what the public would only find out years later. He was dropping $5,000-$6,000 every week at the T.G.I. Friday's and Cheesecake Factory in downtown Nashville, along with $600 shots of cognac at another bar.

Texas: Lance Armstrong

Sport: Cycling

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: If we're going for worldwide sports hate, disgraced cycling champion Lance Armstrong is right up there.

It was a long, dark fall for Richardson native Armstrong, who was once Texas' favorite son after winning seven Tour de France titles. All of them were stripped from him when he was banned for life from cycling by World Anti-Doping Association after an investigation showed he led a sophisticated blood-doping program that enhanced his abilities.

Armstrong finally admitted to doping on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2013 after over a decade’s worth of accusations and denials.

Utah: Michael Jordan

Sport: Basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: The fact Michael Jordan is still so hated requires very little explanation. He's the author of the two most heartbreaking moments in Utah sports history — his Superman-like performance in the 1997 NBA Finals and his iconic, series-winning shot over Byron Russell in the 1998 NBA Finals.

To add insult to injury, Utah Jazz fans were able to relive their pain in 2020 when ESPN released the 10-part documentary "The Last Dance" chronicling Jordan's career, including an alleged food-poisoning incident in 1997 ("The Flu Game") and leading up to the shot over Russell.

Vermont: Lindsey Jacobellis

Sport: Snowboarding

Hated or hated on: Both

Bottom line: This is another athlete who probably deserves to be looked at as "Most Embarrassing" instead of "Most Hated." But, hey, it's a fine line.

Olympic snowboarder and Vermont native Lindsey Jacobellis had a gold medal in the palm of her hand when she began to celebrate before the end of the women's snowboard cross at the 2006 Winter Olympics. She was passed at the finish line by Switzerland's Tanja Frieden.

Jacobellis competed in the Winter Olympics three more times and never medaled again.

Virginia: Ronald Curry

Sports: Football/basketball

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Ronald Curry became the Benedict Arnold of elite recruits in 1998 after leading Hampton High to back-to-back national championships in football and becoming one of the most sought-after basketball and football players in the country.

Curry committed to home state University of Virginia to play both sports but flipped and signed with North Carolina, and the fallout from the "betrayal" was immense.

One interesting twist about Curry's recruitment was his fame completely overshadowed another quarterback in his same district during his entire career — Virginia Tech signee and future No. 1 overall pick Michael Vick.

Washington: Brian Bosworth

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: You can't put together a list of the most hated players in college football and NFL history without including linebacker Brian Bosworth, who wrote to NFL teams telling them not to pick him in the 1987 NFL supplemental draft.

One of those teams, the Seattle Seahawks, went ahead and picked "The Boz" and signed him to an NFL record contract for a rookie — 10 years and $11 million.

Bosworth talked trash on Denver quarterback John Elway and Los Angeles Raiders running back Bo Jackson before games as a rookie, and Jackson made him pay by running him over for a touchdown in one of the most replayed highlights of all time.

Injuries forced Bosworth out of the league after three seasons.

West Virginia: Pat McAfee

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: The University of West Virginia football program's most hated rival is the University of Pittsburgh. The teams have played "The Backyard Brawl" dating back all the way to 1895.

The most infamous game in the rivalry's history came on Dec. 1, 2007, when unbeaten, No. 2-ranked WVU hosted a 4-6 Pittsburgh team in the regular-season finale. A win by WVU would have sent them to the BCS national championship game.

Future NFL All-Pro punter Pat McAfee was WVU's kicker at the time and missed two relatively short field goals in a 13-9 upset loss. The hate for McAfee following the game was very real — as was his decision to never return to Morgantown following graduation.

McAfee has made another, bigger career as a new-age sports broadcaster since his retirement, signing a reported eight-figure deal to join ESPN in 2023.

Wisconsin: Randy Moss

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Green Bay Packers fans really, really took offense to Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss fake-mooning them during a 2005 NFC wild-card game at Lambeau Stadium.

Much of the enmity against Moss was spurred on by takes-himself-too-seriously broadcaster Joe Buck, who called it a "disgusting act" when it was actually hilarious.

The NFL fined Moss $10,000, and it led to one of the greatest sports quotes of all time. After a reporter asked Moss if he'd written the check for the fine, Moss responded, "Straight cash, homey." He was traded to Oakland one month later.

Wyoming: Lloyd Eaton

Sport: Football

Hated or hated on: Hated

Bottom line: Add one more non-athlete to the list. This special exception is for former University of Wyoming head football coach Lloyd Eaton.

Eaton makes the cut because of his decision to throw 14 Black players off the team at Wyoming after they proposed wearing armbands to protest the racist actions of members of the BYU football team ahead of their game in 1969. The Wyoming players had been the target of racist insults from BYU players the previous year.

Eaton's cowardice lives on forever.