Players disliked by their own fan base

[albionmoonlight]

Andrus Peat (guard for Saints) broke his thumb, which has got a bunch of fans on the message board rolling their eyes and talking about how much they dislike him.

Peat was drafted 13th overall to play tackle, but it turns out that he couldn't play tackle at the NFL level, so he switched to guard (strike one)

He showed up to his first camp horribly out of shape (couldn't finish the conditioning run) which set his development back (strike two)

He constantly has lots of little nagging injuries (strike three)

And, when he tries to play through the injuries, he tends to play horribly (strike four)

And he's the guy who ended up on his ass when Aaron Donald broke through the line and broke Brees's thumb (strike five (but, in fairness, Larry Allen would get put on his ass by Aaron Donald, so you can't read too much into that))

All that said, when he's healthy, he is dominant at guard. So the Saints have kept him around and even gave him a large contract extension this offseason.

So, hes a starter on the team. But between making a bad first impression and never having gotten a stretch of healthy play, he is one of the least liked players on the team by the fans.

Which got me thinking. Who are some other athletes who, for whatever reason, were/are disliked by their own fans while they played for their team?

[JPhillips]

It's a Cincy tradition to hate the best player on the Reds while cheering an obviously inferior, but scrappier player. I remember it first with Eric Davis and Chris Sabo, but lots of fans hated Adam Dunn when he was mashing and now they all hate Joey Votto. There's growing hatred for Jesse Winker, so it looks like the tradition will be passed on to the next generatin of players.

[Lathum]

Ereck Flowers

[Drake]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

It's a Cincy tradition to hate the best player on the Reds while cheering an obviously inferior, but scrappier player. I remember it first with Eric Davis and Chris Sabo, but lots of fans hated Adam Dunn when he was mashing and now they all hate Joey Votto. There's growing hatred for Jesse Winker, so it looks like the tradition will be passed on to the next generatin of players.

How can anyone hate Joey Votto?

[spleen1015]

Last year with Jacoby Brissett. I think he took a lot of the frustration from the Colts fan base with Luck retiring.

Brissett played really good through 3-4 games. He was leading the league is a few passing categories and then he got hurt. When he came back, he wasn't so good.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Drake

How can anyone hate Joey Votto?

I love Votto.

[Drake]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Last year with Jacoby Brissett. I think he took a lot of the frustration from the Colts fan base with Luck retiring.

Agree 100% with this. Brissett was put in a no-win situation following Luck.

On the other hand, I'm perfectly happy to hate Philip Rivers before he even throws a pass. I thought he was a douchebag in San Diego. (But that might be tied up with my dislike for San Diego generally, since it seemed like San Diego was where promising Colts' playoff runs went to die.)

[Lathum]

When I worked in Cinci I had an insurance claim I handled for the Red director of corporate ticket sales. He wrecked his car the week the Reds were hosing the all Star game and I did him a few favors to make his crazy week easier. Gey invited me down to the teams offices, gave me a bunch of swag, etc...and we got to talking. He told me on the DL that of all the guys on the team who are expected to give a little time to the corporate big wigs they were selling suites, etc...to Votto was the worst. Was a total dick from what this guy told me.

[Ksyrup]

Didn't Votto take the brunt of some of the anti-SABR backlash for being promoted by SABR people as better than most old-school fans/writers thought? He was slow, hit for average and had some power, but never consistently hit a ton of HRs and rarely got 100 RBIs. However, he walked a ton. Wasn't Dusty Baker still their manager when he made the infamous "walks just clog the bases" comment? I think Votto is one of those 'tweeners caught in the crossfire of what is valued in baseball.

Reminds me to some extent of Fred McGriff, who was an 80s slugger trapped mostly in the 90s, when his numbers didn't look nearly as impressive.

[BYU 14]

Did it really take until the 9th post to name Jay Cutler?

As an honorable mention, McNabb was hated in Philly, which is a tough place to play when you are loved.

[Lathum]

Kyrie Irving would make appearances on multiple teams lists.

[Butter]

Votto was constantly ragged on by Marty "My son is Thom 'f** capitols of the world' " Brennaman for not driving in runs more consistently or hitting home runs and taking a ton of pitches.

[Lathum]

votto does own one of the craziest stats in baseball, something like 6000 at bats without fouling out to first base

[JPhillips]

The Votto hate mostly boils down to he doesn't swing at enough balls and he doesn't care if that makes some fans mad.

And Butter's is right, a lot of the hate started on-air with Marty, but that's also true with Davis and Dunn. Marty hated modern stats and loved grit and hustle.

[Drake]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

The Votto hate mostly boils down to he doesn't swing at enough balls and he doesn't care if that makes some fans mad.

So this reminds me of J.D. Drew. Drew, obviously, wasn't ever going to be on many "fan favorites" lits, but HOLY SHIT I loved the pure, buttery smoothness of his swing.

When he swung.

Which was never often enough.

And so I hated him just a little because I wanted to see that fucking swing.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Drake

So this reminds me of J.D. Drew. Drew, obviously, wasn't ever going to be on many "fan favorites" lits, but HOLY SHIT I loved the pure, buttery smoothness of his swing.

When he swung.

Which was never often enough.

And so I hated him just a little because I wanted to see that fucking swing.

I hated him and his draft shenanigans so to this day, he and Scott Boras can GFY. And I think a lot of people around baseball feel that way.

SI

[sterlingice]

It seems baffling to me that there's a large contingent of fans that hate Joey Votto. He's one of the most loved "other team's players" in the league.

Then again, on bad teams, there's always the tendency to blame the best player for not being good enough rather than the idea that if there were a whole team of that guy, they'd be an awesome team.

SI

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Drake

So this reminds me of J.D. Drew. Drew, obviously, wasn't ever going to be on many "fan favorites" lits, but HOLY SHIT I loved the pure, buttery smoothness of his swing.

When he swung.

Which was never often enough.

And so I hated him just a little because I wanted to see that fucking swing.

The thing with Votto is that he's often near the top of the league at swinging at strikes and not swinging at balls. He's got the best eye in baseball, but Marty saw that as selfish, so Cincy fans decided Votto was selfish.

[Bobble]

Eric Ebron. I was going to say, "Eric Ebron when he was with the Lions" but it's really Eric Ebron wherever he is. Drops passes, blames the fans, entitlement issues...

[Ben E Lou]

Temporary situation, but pretty wild and memorable because of the resolution. The media reported some comments that Dave Justice made that were critical of the Atlanta fanbase during the '95 WS, to the point that he was lustily booed at home in Game 6 every time he came to bat...

...until he broke up a 0-0 tie with a solo homer in the bottom of the 6th that would win the game and the Series.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Temporary situation, but pretty wild and memorable because of the resolution.

Was the very first name that came to my mind.

[Swaggs]

I don't know if most would say it out loud, but I think most Steeler fans feel some dislike for Roethlisberger. He has certainly matured, but with the alleged sexual assaults, the motorcycle accident, not having much media tact at times (particularly with his own players and coaches and being wishy-washy about retiring a few times), and the random stories about him being an asshole from people that went to college with him or have known him in Pittsburgh - he is definitely not beloved like you would think he would be given his accomplishments and being a QB.

I would say that most tolerate him because the team has been very successful with him and he is tough (he plays hurt and takes a punishment, at least), but have been uncomfortable being a fan of his for a long time. For a long time, you didn't see many jerseys.

I do think fans will be pretty okay with it whenever he decides to hang it up.

[cuervo72]

Any starting Philly QB.

[Brian Swartz]

For the Lions, Matt Stafford gets a lot of hate. He's gutsy and a good quarterback along with being a genuinely quality family man by all appearances. But, like all Lions QBs since Bobby Layne, he loses in the playoffs - nevermind that most of the teams haven't been good enough to win there - so he gets a lot of hate for his contract and a good amount of people basically think we shouldn't have paid him and let him walk.

At which point they'd then be mad at whatever vastly inferior QB we had, but that's besides the point.

[NobodyHere]

Here’s a list of all 29 Browns starting quarterback since 1999

[stevew]

Roethlisburger can’t retire soon enough. Kyrie Irving for sure.

[Sublime 2]

David Price on the Sox.

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[CrimsonFox]

People in cinci hated Griffey Jr as well

[Bisbo]

RG III