From: timr@sco.COM (Tim Ruckle)
Subject: Teams You Love To Hate (was: Favorite Football Teams---Results)
Organization: The Gifted and the Damned
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 10:30:01 GMT
Summary: 49ers most despised team on the net


Va negvpyr <DMERCER.92Jul14144004@ap1seq.oracle.com>
dmercer@oracle.com (David B. Mercer) jevgrf:
} 
} As promised, here are the results of the favorite football team poll.
} 79 ballots were received.

Nice job.  It'd also be interesting to see a statistical breakdown for
by geography of those who submitted ballots if that were possible...

} SUMMARY:
} [...] 
} 
} Most Despised Team:     San Francisco Forty-Niners (9.3 last-choice votes)
} [...] 

While capturing neither least popular nor least favorite, it's nice to know
that my beloved 49ers are most something--even if that's the dubious honor
of being utterly despised by so many net.folks...

Now, I've been--mostly lurking--in this group off and on for years now
(I usually start paying attention in earnest around this time of year, and
then lose my will to keep up once the traffic explodes and there're real
games to entertain me).  Anyways, I've certainly noticed the level of
antipathy towards the Niners on the net.  Having been a fan of theirs for
decades now, through all the great seasons as well as the terrible ones,
I'm somewhat curious as to what the reasons are for this.

Their successes in the eighties and the attending media hype?  The constant
net.squabbles over whether Montana or Rice are the ``best''?  Obnoxious fans
on the net?  Fair weather fans from other regions?  Sick and tired of the
sometimes disproportional number of articles about them?  Did they come from
behind to beat your favorite team in the fourth?  Blow them out altogether?
Leg-whip your star lineman?  Just don't like California teams period, and
San Francisco most of all?  Didn't like Walsh?  All of these things?

To me is seems reminiscent of my own loathing of the Cowboys when they
were America's Team(TM).  Being dubbed the ``Team of the Eighties'' and
the attending talk of a dynasty and three-peat undoubtably fueled the
desire in many for them to be taken down a notch.  That alone probably
doomed them to being despised by some, with all the other possible
reasons simply compounding on that.  (I mean, did you hate them in the
seventies as well?)

For myself, the teams I love to hate typically break down into three
categories: divisional, regional, and  conference rivalries.  history
of "bad blood" between teams.  or hatred specific to head coach and/or
player(s) on a team. 

Now, as a Niners fan and self-respecting nothern Californian, I am
honor bound to hate the Rams.  Destroying them in the NFC championship
game to go on to a record breaking Super Bowl performance was probably
as much as any Niners fan could hope for.  But I also have a soft spot
for the underdog, and while the rivalry will of course remain, I'm
actually feeling sorry for John Robinson and am hoping that Chuck Knox
can bring them back from their pathetic 3-13 showing of last year.  Then
I can get back to hating them full-time.

Similary, the fall of the Cowboys erased virtually all trace of my
animosity for them, and I was actually happy that they made it to the
playoffs last year.  Doubly-happy that they upset the Bears.

I still really love to hate the Bears.  Probably a combination of all
three of the above reasons, but mostly because I dislike Ditka so much.
While it was certainly disappointing to miss the playoffs last year,
it was a great moral victory to blow out the Bears in the last game of
the season and get to see the look on Ditka's face.  Ditka has yet to
forgive the 49ers for past games (remember the 26-0 final game in '89,
and the "gum throwing" incident) and he's not liable to forget about
last year's 4th quarter TD pass by backup QB Musgrave either.  Count
on continued bad blood here.

I hated the Eagles under Buddy Ryan solely because I despised him.
I thought he was both a jerk and overrated as a coach.  With the
departure of Ryan that hatred went with him, and as the season shaped
up I even had a feeling of connection with them.  We both lost our
franchise QB for the season.  Both of our backup QB's went down as
well.  The Niners had more depth offensively, but the Eagles hung in
there with the best defense in the league--perhaps one of the best ever.
The Niners win 8 of their last 10 games, the Eagles 7 of 8.  Both end
up 10-6, but miss the playoffs.  I wish them all the best this year
(except on November 29th at Candlestick of course).

Now, I still hate the Giants.  Not with the virtiol reserved for the
Bears, but more with the attending respect one has for a worthy opponent
who has bloodied your nose in a good fight.  There were the playoff
defeats of '85 and '86.  And of course there was the heartbreaking
loss in the NFC Championship game two years ago, and the deja vu in
last year's season opener.  I suppose there might be some bad blood
here as well: the crushing hits on Montana, the complaints about the
niners blocking techniques, Lott and Simms in each others face, etc.
But for me this is mostly a conference rivalry thing, albeit a heated
one.

Finally, the latest team I love to hate is--you guessed it--the Falcons.
I'd have to hate them solely on the arrival of Jerry Glanville.  Add
two loudmouth, grandstanding corners and there's no question.  But getting
beat twice in close games and seeing them win the tie-breaker and go the
the playoffs?  The blood boils (much to their delight i'm sure).  They
now receive that special ire once reserved for the Rams, and then some.
I'll be hoping that their cocky secondary can increase it's league-leading
30 TD passes surrendered, and that the Georgia Dome carpet proves harder
on Falcon flesh than it does for their opponents.

I can't really bring myself to hate the Saints.  I used to love watching
Bum Philips on the sidelines.  Before the arrival of Mora they'd never
had a winning season, and thus weren't much of a division rival.  But
their fans pretty much hung in there--sort of like the Cubbies of the
NFL--and you've got to respect them for that.  Both their head coach and
star players handle themselves with class, and I can't begrudge them their
first ever division title.  We will, however, want it back this year.

So I'll hate the Giants on opening day, and smile throughout the season
whenever I see Ditka lose it.  But otherwise the team I will love to
hate for now will be the Falcons.

-timr

PS. When i'm not rooting for the Niners, I'm mostly just hoping to see
good football.  They only other team I'd call a favorite is the Raiders.
My dream Super Bowl would be a close one between the Niners and the
Raiders (with the Niners winning, of course, in a 99-yard drive in the
final seconds of the game).  I've been predicting this one for the last
two years now.  Thought we might actually have it two years ago when both
went to their conference championship games, but alas it was not to be.
Even thought there was an outside chance last year.  Oh well, maybe some
year.  Not much chance for the Raiders this year I'm afraid.  Along with
some skilled division rivals, the AFC West meets the tough NFC east this
year (Redskins, Cowboys, Eagles, and Giants) and they are also scheduled
to play the Bills and the Oilers.  I think they'll be lucky to go 9-7
again, and may very well have a losing season.  Hope not, but they've
got a tough schedule, and a number of weaknesses.

--
There is no sport in hate when all the rage is on one side.
                                           --Percy Shelley