In the lull between the Super Bowl and free agency, it can be challenging to create compelling football content. The scouting combine isn’t for everyone, college basketball gets in the way, and there’s no real football games being played.
This is unless you’re the sportsbook BetOnline.ag, of course. Our friends over at BOL – in what they called a “semi-scientific Twitter study”, used this break in the action to determine who is the NFL’s most despised person. To no surprise, it’s Aaron Rodgers by a margin:
This list was determined by using, “more than a million tweets [that] were analyzed by keyword association. Negative phrases such as “I hate Aaron Rodgers,” “Antonio Brown sucks,” “F**ck Roger Goodell,” “Cam Newton is horrible,” etc. were included in the study that spanned the month of December. January and February were not included so the findings wouldn’t be swayed by the playoff participants.”
Outside of the obvious hatred of Rodgers is the fact that five current or former members of the Patriots organization are included on this list. Antonio Brown, Bill Belichick, Cam Newton, Josh McDaniels, and Robert Kraft all cracked the top 20.
Antonio Brown has been a cancer everywhere he’s been, and isn’t able to get along with anyone after a period of time – making a mockery of himself and anyone who vouches for him. He played just one game for New England in 2019 before being released due to, you guessed it, off the field issues.
He was released by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick – who is the third most hated NFL person on this list. I’m not sure if it’s because of his nonchalant “I don’t care about you” attitude or just the sheer fact that he wins so many games, but the people don’t like him. Belichick has, however, lost his touch a little bit since losing Tom Brady.
One of his many interesting decisions as of late was signing quarterback Cam Newton the year that Brady left for Tampa. Newton, who is right in the middle of BetOnline’s list of most despised, was really bad during his one season in New England. He was at the helm for the Patriots first losing season since 2000, and threw for just eight touchdowns in 15 games. One thing I was always curious about during Newton’s time here was whose fault it really was – his own or the pieces around him?
The guy who called the plays for Newton during his year in New England was Josh McDaniels – who is now the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. McDaniels is the 14th most despised person in the NFL according to BOL. His tenure as the head coach of the Broncos was a failure – to say the least. He tried way too hard to bring the Belichick way to Denver and made a complete fool out of himself. He then put an even sourer taste in fans mouth when he accepted the Colts head coaching job before deciding to back out just one day before his introductory press conference.
Rumor has it, Patriots owner Robert Kraft was the one who talked him off the proverbial ledge and suckered him back to Foxboro. Kraft is last on this list as the 20th most despised person in the NFL, and the third most hated owner behind Dan Snyder and Jerry Jones. I’m not too sure what Kraft has done wrong (as an owner) during his time in New England. After all – they’ve won six championships since he bought the team and he’s credited as the one who brought the two sides together during the 2011 labor strike. Maybe it’s his extracurriculars that the Twitter world isn’t too fond of, but he’s an A+ owner in my book.
This is clearly a “hate us ’cause they ain’t us” attitude from NFL fans, as they just can’t get on the Patriots level. It’s understandable – and hopefully now that Tom Brady is out of the league they finally have a sense of hope.
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