Philly Sports: Some recent athletes you should dislike

Philly sports never seem to provide us any shortage of athletes who we can put on our list of disliked players, and recent history is no exception.

This is a topic that I have explored in my book that you’ll neither read nor buy, and it’s one that fascinates me to no end. I can’t speak for other towns, but in Philly sports, there seem to be an inordinate number of athletes that end up on “the list”, as it were, with fans having big problems with them for one reason or another.

I don’t know if this is an indicator of us being overly harsh and critical of the players who come through town, or maybe we’re just realistic and don’t sugarcoat things. But any given period of time offers us a number of players who we can all get behind in disliking. And I do use the term “dislike” instead of “hate” because, come on, it’s sports.

The list in my book (which runs from the time period of the mid-90’s to 2018) included such luminaries as Mike Mamula, Domonic Brown, and Jonathan Papelbon. It’s a mix of players who vastly underachieved and/or were absolutely terrible people while they played in town. And there’s also guys on there like my buddy Desi Relaford, who were just laughably bad. I didn’t spare anyone.

But in the two years since I compiled that list, there have been even more developments in this area, giving Philadelphia’s fans a new crop of players upon whom they can cast their scorn and disdain. Maybe you’ll disagree with some of the following, or perhaps you think I’m forgetting someone who’s made a negative mark in Philly during the last two years. Please note, I didn’t include Nelson Agholor. I’m just tired of him and don’t even want to bother. At any rate, here are a few players who I think can build a strong case for being on all of our lists.