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!

1. This Brett Favre vs. Aaron Rodgers thing is going to get tired QUICK.
One thing that annoyed me last night, is the constant comparison of their performances. The commentators never once mentioned the fact that Brett Favre has only had 4 weeks to learn a playbook and build chemistry with a new team. Are his performances really fit for comparison at this rate?

2. The Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots will not be AFC powerhouse teams this year.
When Peyton Manning injured his knee in the preseason, I wasn’t worried…but when Jeff Saturday went down I knew it was big trouble. Dallas Clark hurt his knee in Sunday’s game..and it’s just a matter of time before Bob Sanders is injured too (it happens every single year).

3. The Minnesota Vikings are going NOWHERE with Tavaris Jackson as QB.
Maybe the Vikings should have tried just a little bit harder to acquire Brett Favre in the offseason. He’s skittish in the pocket and secondaries don’t fear him.

4. Adrian Peterson will not rush for 2,000 yards like he said he would
You want a reason? See number 3.

5. Every NFL team made a mistake by passing over DeSean Jackson in the first round
He was a heisman trophy candidate wide receiver in college, he was projected as a top 15 pick in the draft…he ran a 4.3 40 yard dash at the combine….he was personally trained by Jerry Rice. However, every team was scared to draft him because he’s only 5’9 and 165 pounds…ignoring the fact that he can play football. He tore it up during week 1 for the Eagles and McNabb has a new toy. If Devin Hester was slightly less good at returning kicks, and could actually run routes and play wide receiver… his name would be DeSean Jackson.

6. The Dallas Cowboys aint playin with y’all no more….
All this team has to do is make it through the regular season without any injuries, and they’re practically guaranteed the super bowl. This team is DEEP. They got squad.

7. The Dolphins will be a drastic improvement over last year’s team
I know Brett Favre’s long bomb throws got all of the press, but Miami actually almost won the game. Even though they lost, the team looks much better than they did last year, Parcells knows how to crack the whip on his players better than anyone.

8. Vince Young and/or Reggie Bush HAVE to have great years
Both of these guys had fantastic rookie seasons followed by sophomore slumps of varying degrees and the media is out for blood now. I don’t think the pressure on Bush is necessarily fair, and Vince Young will face these “mental toughness” questions all season…. I hope they respond well.

9. The Washington Redskins will not make the playoffs this year
Did you see how these guys played against the Giants on Thursday? They weren’t “Raiders bad”, but they were pretty damned bad. The west coast offense Jim Zorn installed may take a little longer than we expected to catch on with everyone, but in a division THAT tough with Philly, Dallas, and NY, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

10. Matt Shaub ain’t all that….
202 yards passing, 2 INTs, sacked 5 times. This is the exact kind of performance that would have gotten Michael Vick KILLED by the media 3 years ago when Shaub was his backup. You could visit almost any internet forum and see all kinds of people calling for Shaub to replace Vick. I flat out don’t believe he’s that good, and this year will prove that.

I know my readers expect me to jump for joy right now. Sportaphile.com IS your one stop shop for anti-New England sentiment on the internet. But I’d be lying to you if I said I was happy Brady tore his ACL 15 minutes into the season. I might talk a lot of shit from time to time, but it’s not good to see a top player in a league blow out his knee like that.

I’d much rather see Tom Brady play all 16 games and struggle mightily, racking up sack after sack… but still rising to his feet after it’s done. Am I happy that New England won’t be returning to the Super Bowl?? Of course, I just wish it happened a little differently.

I wrote a post in February about ‘The Curse Of The Super Bowl Losers’, which illustrated how the last seven teams who lost in the super bowl failed to make the playoffs the following year (with the exception of Seattle).

Unless there’s an unbelievable act of heroism by Matt Cassel this year, it’s safe to assume New England will NOT duplicate the success of 2007…. thus extending the legacy of the Super Bowl Curse.

I came to Sportaphile to deliver my trademark Pulitzer Prize winning sports commentary this morning and noticed the site had been attacked.

Am I sensing a Napoleon complex? I wonder what it was that set them off?

Was the time I said Tedy Bruschi looks like a butch lesbian?
…or the forty three times I mentioned they cheated?
…or the time I implied Tom Brady trolls the m4m ads on Craigslist?
…or the time I called out Vince Wilfork for intentionally injuring J.P. Losman?
…or the time I said Randy Moss was a quitter with no heart?
…or the time I called their linebackers old men who get tired when you run at them?
…or the times I made fun of that crazed naked Patriots fan lady?
…or the time I mentioned Rodney Harrison was the dirtiest player in football?

…or the time… you get the point….

I’ll recommend a movie to you guys, called Sorry, Haters!!. It’s extremely good, one of the best independent films I’ve seen in the last year or so. The end of the movie will blow your mind…