2 comments

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  mike

  2 years ago

  I must disagree that this is a purely British phenomenon. Everybody hates winners... unless we liked them when they were losers.
  
  
  In the US, look at the most despised teams in sports: the Yankees, the Cowboys, the Lakers, Duke, Notre Dame. What do these teams all have in common? They win!
  
  
  
  Yet we looove the underdogs -- the Red Sox, the Cubs, any double-digit seed in March Madness... these are the teams we root for year after year.
  
  
  
  As a die-hard Red Sox fan I like to think that losing is more interesting; I wouldn't trade my sox memories for all those Yankees championships. But that's just me.
  
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  Anonymous

  2 years ago

  I agree that there is the same phenomenon in American sports, but I would qualify it slightly. It's not just winning teams, but how they are perceived to win.
  
  
  Notre Dame is not just hated because they are a winning program (13 straight bowl defeats), but because they are perceieved to be consistently overrated and operate with an undeserved sense of arrogance and smugness.
  
  
  
  Duke gets hated in the same way because no one likes the rich white school with the goodie-two-shoes players that gets constantly overrated.
  
  
  
  The Yankees make the playoffs every season because they have a crippling financial situation.
  
  
  
  All three have the same consistent factor as well that their fans are f-ing annoying.
  
  
  
  I think the same thing goes with the Premiership as well. Chelsea gets the animosity because they spend their way to the title. Manchester Utd. gets the animosity because they spend a ton of money and are perceieved to be arrogant. Whereas successful clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool are more favorably looked on by neutrals.
  
  
  
  I think it also can work against the underdog as well. If it were any other club making a run at the top 4 people would be celebrating, but because it is Bolton people cringe and hope they go down in flames.
  
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