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Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA
Somewhere in here probably fits the notion of strength-of-sentiment and the effects of time.
The Yankees and Notre Dame are the two examples that I can think of off-hand where periods of irrelevance (i.e. losing) didn't seem to do a lot to dim the hatred. Cowboys might come close to that but not at the same level IMO.
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Sure, every case is different, some teams maintain the hate over down periods more than others, but with both the Yankess and Notre Dame, the hate ultimately comes from their status as iconic, relevant brands that had a lot of success. From that, flows all kind of other sub-factors - the fact that media outlets cover them SO much even when they're not any good, the fact that they have so many fans all over the country that provide so many opportunities for negative interactions with other people, the fact that the kind of fame and notoriety and money that those brands can generate can attract douchebags players and fans, the fact that those teams have crushed the seasons of other fans' teams many times in the past. Edit: I think once that team/franchise reaches that level of iconic relevance, and "earns" that level of hate, it takes a long time to fall out of it just by losing, because there's so much history built-up, but it's much easier to become more iconic, and to gain more hate, through winning, like the Patriots have done. (Bill Bellichick is an asshole and definitely fuels a lot of that hate, but he wasn't a big national villain with the Browns because he didn't win there and wasn't relevant - I'm sure he was still an asshole though, he was just an asshole you didn't have to hear very much about)