Sports Villains

Dr.Doom, Mr.Burns, Green Goblin, Dr.Evil, Lex Luthor, Shredder, Michael Myers, The Riddler, and Darth Vader. George W. Bush, Sadaam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, and Hiraldo Rivera. Whether in the fictional or real realms, bad guys seem to appear everywhere. Whether they be tyrants, dictators, evil scientists, or so forth; whether they start wars, fight superheroes, or just plain annoy you, there is no avoiding the villains of the world. Nothing could be truer than in the wide world of sports, where fans always seem to have some sort of enemy for whatever reason.

The most common reason for hating someone in sports is sheer dominance. Because of the audience's infatuation with the underdog and the Spurness (my new word for dullness combined with obvious) of the best team always winning, fans seem to develop harsh feelings towards the one's sitting at the top. This has been the case for quite some time now, proving justice in Wilt Chamberlain's famous quote "Nobody roots for Goliath".

Wilt came into the league in 1959 as a 7'1", 250 pound monster ready to terrorize a league not even close to ready for him. The average height for a center in the NBA during those days was between 6'7" and 6'9", making Wilt's combination of size, athleticism, strength and talent the most dominant presence that any sport had seen to date. By the time he reached 300 pounds a couple years later, the rulebooks were being re-written to refrain "The Stilt" from his habitual games of 50+ points, 30+ rebounds, 10+ assists and 10+ blocks. The pinnacle of his career came in 1962 in a game against the New York Knicks where Wilt scored a whopping 100 points, a feat that will probably never be jeopordized. Because of his overall sheer dominance, the NBA had to widen the lane in an effort to keep him further away from the basket, and probably most impressively, the NBA implimented the rule that a player cannot cross the free-throw line when shooting a foul shot because Wilt was capable of just taking off and dunking from there every time. Still, for all his dominance, Wilt "only" able to win two championships in the Celtics-dominant era.

For every 50 point game he managed to pull off, Wilt was still considered a loser and a selfish player. As Wilt once put it; "When you go out there and do the things you're supposed to do, people view you as selfish.". Because he was so unstoppable, Wilt caught a bad rap with almost everyone. No matter what he did, it was never enough. He would often complain that when he won, the feeling was "he's so big and dominant, he's supposed to win", but when he lost, it was always "he's so big and dominant, how can he lose?". For all of his impressive exploits, people continuously rooted against Chamberlain, reviled his dominance and labeled him a selfish loser.

Another guy who has garnered that same criticism is the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant. Bryant, owner of the second highest point total in an NBA game next to Wilt's 100 at 81, is often thrown into the same categorie of talented but selfish. For one, he won three championships with Shaquille O'neal but was not able to co-exist with his big man and eventually had him shipped out to Miami, leaving Kobe to take as many shots as he wanted on a sub-par team. Fans from every city have been going to Lakers games for years just to yell at and mock Kobe, who in turns usually drop 40 to 50 points on their squad. Sports writers and experts alike have been commenting on Bryant's selfish play rather than promoting his individual skills. In a classic case of "Dont hate, appreciate"-ness, The Black Mamba continues to improve, not only individually but his team game as well, all while the Lakers have climbed back up the hierarchy known as the NBA. Be it the ease in which he manhandles his opponents, his Prima Donna personality, or his colossal swagger, Kobe Bryant remains one of the most hated figures in sports today.

Sometimes entire teams are loathed just because of their capacity for winning. Firstly, look at this year's New England Patriots. Before losing in the Superbowl and thus completing Disney's next movie script, the Pats were the most powerful team in football, going a whopping 18-0 until the aformentioned showdown. Good teams are good teams, but the way in which they carried themselves all year caused some major hatred nationwide. Not only did they win all their games, but they decided to run up the scores whenever they could, go for it on practically every 4th down, and even get caught cheating, thereby embarassing their opponents and garnering disgust from every spectator, expert, opposing player, and opposing coach. The leader of this group, coach Bill Belichick, was the most reviled of them all. Absolutely nothing about this man was likeable. The calls he made, the way he carried himself, the boring post-game interviews, and most importantly, the cheating, all turned Coach Belichick into one of the biggest villains in sports history.

Not to be overshadowed, though, the New York Yankee's definitely remain the most hated franchise in the history of sports. Their dominance over the century is bothersome to any non-Yankee fan because they always seem to get the best players. They manage to take advantage of baseball's rules, or non-rules for that matter, by paying insane amounts to aquire just about anyone they want. The man signing the checks and bringing all the all-stars over to the dark-side is owner George Steinbrenner. Mr.Steinbrenner has managed to literally buy the services of countless individuals, in turn stealing them away from they hometown's squad and the admiration of their hometown fans.

One of the most famous examples of someone 'selling-out' on their team just to run off and join the Yankees is centerfielderJohnny Damon. Damon was the long-haired, sideburns-havin', free-spirited leader of the Boston Redsox, who in 2004, managed to overcome their storied rivals, the New York Yankees, on way to their first world series win since 1918. Johnny was praised as the saviour, who incredibly managed to overcome the odds and de-throne the enemy New York Squad. Then, practically out of nowhere, Johnny Damon chose to rip out the heart's of every single Red Sox fans by cutting his hair and joining the Yanks, practically solidifying himself as the biggest sell-outs of all time. As Dr. R. Myerson put it; "When playing on the Red Sox or Yankees, especially when being part of the core, you take a sacred vow never to play for the other. He jumped ship to the other one, when he felt that Boston didnt offer him as much as he deserved. And then like Samson, he shaved his beard and lost all of his red sox-esque attitude". Ridiculous.

Another big-time trader in the eyes of many sports fans, especially in Toronto, is none other than Vincent Lamar Carter. Carter was the Rookie of the Year in 98'-99', the slam dunk champion in 2000, and given the label of 'next' early on in his career. Vince's future was definitely looking bright. Then, some sort of evil wizard must have stolen Carter's heart because all of a sudden, coincidentally as the Raptors started losing, Vince completely gave up on the franchise. Like never seen before, VC managed to distance himself from a loyal fanbase by mailing in games, whining, faking injuries, and even stooping as low as to, apperantly, giving away plays to the opposing teams in the final moments of close games (against Seattle). Vince worked so hard on ruining his reputation while also ruining an innocent franchise until he was finally dealt to New Jersey for nothing, literally nothing. Thats how badly Toronto had to get rid of him, they traded a parennial all-star for absolutely zero. Now that Jason Kidd is out of New Jersey and they're a miserable team again, its only a matter of time before Carter stops trying. As long as the paychecks keep coming he could care less what else happens.

If Vince Carter and Johnny Damon are the Usher and Neo of quitting, then Bobby Petrino has to be the Michael Jackson. You know the saying, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", well in ol' Bobby's case, it's "if you don't beat 'em, quit". 13 games into the 2007-08 NFL season, with his falcons at a dissapointing 3-10, Petrino decided to call up the ownership and resign from his head coach position, leaving thousands of Falcons fans in shock. Rather than sticking it out, trying to turn the team around and possibly earning the money he was being paid, Bobby decided to abandon the team and the city of Atlanta and dash out of town for the university of Arkansas. He could have at least stayed the rest of the year, pretended like he cared and left during the offseason, but that would have been too respectable for him.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the most hated bad guys in sports within the next couple days.