Part of the joy of sports from a fan’s perspective is finding a team or player to hate. Sure, it’s great to root for your home town team, it’s great to follow a team for your whole life and stick with them through thick and thin, it’s great to want someone to succeed.

But on the flip side, you can’t have a hero unless there’s a great villain nearby.

When Tom Brady blew out his knee in the opening game of the season, it left a void deep in my soul. Here we are approaching week 3 and I find myself unsatisfied… I simply don’t have anyone I strongly dislike enough to root against. I need to pray for the demise of a good team and their leader to save my NFL season.

By process of elimination…. Aaron Rodgers will step into Tom Brady’s shoes as my most hated athlete of 2008. Unlike Tom, Aaron hasn’t done anything to me or my favorite teams…. but the fact that he’s doing so well coupled with the sour taste of how the Packers front office handled the Favre situation makes him a prime candidate.

Right about now.. you’d be hard pressed to find anti-Aaron Rodgers folks on the internet, he’s doing so damned well that his haters are silent. But not I…..It’s never any fun to root against a team that already sucks, and I needed to choose someone successful.

Here’s to praying for Aaron’s demise in 2008.

Salute!