By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
August 28, 2016
About a decade ago I posted my list of most hated Detroit athletes on this website. The only qualification is that person had to play for the Wings, Tigers, Lions or Pistons.
Members of the Shock, Drive, Panthers, Rockers, Neon and Vipers were not eligible for this list. And this was MY list. I really didn’t care whom you despised or if you actually liked someone on my most hated.
I have thought about updating the list for a couple of years, but I kept procrastinating until Prince Fielder’s retirement announcement earlier this month finally sparked me to finish this article.
So here is my Top 25 Most Hated Detroit athletes since I became cognizant of Detroit sports in 1976. Before I begin, I should explain why some people didn’t make my list.
Some of you may be expecting to see Don Kelly, Ryan Raburn or Dan Cleary. But none of those players qualify because I blame their inept manager/coaches for playing those guys when they should not have. It’s not like Don Kelly placed himself third in a batting order.
That was Jim Leyland. Which reminds me, this would be a good time to mention that coaches, managers and General Managers aren’t eligible either.
Anyway, let’s start with some athletes who received consideration but just missed the cut ….
Dishonorable Mentions
Tim Cheveldae
Dino Ciccarelli
Marcel Dionne
Johnnie Morton
Eddie Murray
Josh Smith
Roy Williams
Delmon Young
25) Andre Drummond
I’m pretty sure this is the only member of the list who follows me on Twitter, but I couldn’t let the Piston center’s good taste in social media follows influence my thought process.
Drummond is also the only person included who could escape the list by doing one simple thing …
Shoot underhanded free-throws…which he clearly has no intention of doing. Even though he shot only 35.5% from the charity stripe during the regular season and worse than that during the team’s short playoff stint.
The guy was embarrassed several times by Stan Van Gundy this past season in getting benched during crunch time of games and yet he still shows zero inclination to attempt a style that would probably increase his FT percentage by at least 15 to 20%.
Oh, and he also attempted to murder this website’s former managing editor — now I wouldn’t care if he had — and once caused such a ruckus at my wife’s old store at Somerset that mall security had to close her place down on the busiest day of the week so Drummond could shop in privacy.
He then spent almost an hour in her store with friends and they didn’t buy a god damn thing.
Of course, all would be forgiven …
IF HE STARTED SHOOTING RICK BARRY-STYLE FREE-THROWS!!!
24) Bobby Higginson
The last time I compiled this list, Higginson was ranked much higher but I wasn’t as avid a sabermetric devotee back then so the former Tigers outfielder really benefited from me getting smarter over the last ten years.
If anything, Higginson was the poster child for a horrible era of Tigers baseball. His ridiculous salary led me to nickname him “Onefifthinson” because the rightfielder earned 1/5 of the entire team budget at the time.
But when you look at his numbers (career OBP of .358, career slugging percentage of .455), Higginson was actually a productive player who put up a WAR of 5.0 in 2000.
I still never cared for his attitude or his incessant whining so he remains on my most hated countdown. But it’s probably not entirely fair in retrospect.
23) Bruce McNorton
My hate for the Lions cornerback was probably a tad irrational as he wasn’t the worst player on those awful Monty Clark/Darryl Rogers teams of the eighties but the dude seemed to get beaten like a rented mule every Sunday by the opposing team’s best wide receiver.
His most positive contribution to the Lions organization was siring a daughter who eventually married Calvin Johnson. Which means he did play a part in “molly wopped” being a part of my lexicon.
22) Eric Ebron
The Lions’mouthy and dense tight-end is one of the few players on this list who is still active and, while it’s not his fault that Martin Mayhew drafted him ahead of Aaron Donald and Odell Beckham, Jr., it doesn’t mean I can’t still despise the butter-fingered receiver.
Nor does it help Ebron’s cause that just this week ESPN.com ranked Beckham, Jr. the 13th best player in the NFL and Donald number eight.
It also doesn’t help that he is a delusional moron.
21) Charlie Villanueva
The beginning of the end of Joe Dumars’ reign as chief executive of the Pistons came when he signed Villanueva to a five-year, $40 million contract in the summer of 2009 along with Ben Gordon.
Not only was Villanueva hot garbage on the court — where he was seldom in playing shape — he also was charged with domestic assault a year after signing his deal in Detroit.
And based upon what Eli Zaret told the DSR podcast, former coaches could see that Charlie V. wasn’t exactly focused on his craft.
His other claim to fame was crying about Kevin Garnett’s trash talking when KG supposedly called Villanueva a “cancer patient” due to CV’s alopecia.
Having cancer would at least have been an excuse for why Villanueva was such hot garbage in Detroit. Maybe he should have run with Garnett’s diagnosis.
20) Gerald Laird
Game 163. Against the Minnesota Twins. October 6, 2009.
Humbert H. Humphrey Metrodome.
0-for-6.
Two strikeouts.
Grounded into a double play.
Ten men left on base.
Ten.
X.
Ten. Men. Left. On. Base.
Please die in a fire.
#NeverForget
19) Darren McCarty
Do you know how hard it is to get on this list when you scored one of the greatest goals in Red Wings history and won four Stanley Cup rings in Detroit?
Those Cups and that goal are the only things keeping this degenerate derelict out of the top five, though.
I am not going to rehash the litany of all McCarty’s transgressions (from serially cheating on his first wife with half the West Bloomfield High School female alumni; to running up his second wife’s credit card at the casino where she worked; to “lifting” her car and driving it to Detroit from Calgary) but suffice to say the man is human garbage.
And don’t get me started on this dumbfuck’s insistence that Sergei Fedorov’s number should not be retired by the Red Wings organization or how he badmouthed #91 when Fedorov left for Anaheim.
I’d better watch him pantsing Ron Hextall again before I move him up the list.
18) Allan Houston
You might not get on this list for being a bible-thumping anti-Semite.
”Matthew 26, verse 67. Then they (the Jews) spit in Jesus’ face and hit him with their fists.”
You might not get on this list for leaving Detroit as a free-agent and signing with a New York team in the prime of your career.
But if you pull off the exacta of getting called out by the JDL and backstabbing this city ….. yeah …. you are going to end up on my “most hated” list.
Houston, we have a problem ….
You’re a cunt.
17) Joey Harrington
There is one personality trait of Lions players that I despise more than almost anything and that is a complete inability to come to Detroit and understand the wretched history of this franchise.
There is nothing more annoying than hearing a current player stating, “Don’t blame me, I haven’t been here for the last 58 years.”
And no Lions draftee personified this refusal to accept that playing for the Lions — and accepting a hefty paycheck in the process — meant dealing with the half-century old stench of losing more than Joey “Blue Skies” Harrington.
It also didn’t help that Harrington was a total bust as the third pick in the 2002 Draft and threw more interceptions in Motown (62) than touchdowns (60).
It PROBABLY also didn’t help that the Lions’ record in the Harrington years was 19-45 for a pathetic win percentage of 29.7%.
16) Jon Kitna
There have been worse QBs in Detroit than Kitna and there have been better QBs in Detroit than Kitna. But there hasn’t been one that was more annoying.
This born-again psychopath made Tim Tebow look like Christopher Hitchens by comparison. He never shut the fuck up about Christianity the entire time he was in Detroit.
That god damn, ubiquitous cross hat was a constant in-your face reminder that Kitna was a devout believer. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he purchased a home in the Metro Detroit area that would be large enough for Kitna and his wife to invite teammates over to their house and proselytize.
He did convince about 35% of his teammates to join in his revival. Unfortunately, that left about 65% of the team completely annoyed with Pastor Kitna’s act, which led to division in the locker room and fights over his religious propaganda.
Things got so bad that there was a fight over Kitna’s insistence on playing Christian rock in the team’s locker room.
You’d think there would be enough evidence by now that if there is a God (Spoiler Alert: There isn’t) that the deity doesn’t like the Lions. Unfortunately, nobody ever told Cross Kitna that. Or Jim Caldwell, for that matter.
15) Uwe Krupp
When the German defenseman signed with the Wings in the summer of 1998, he was already fighting an uphill battle to become a beloved member of the organization.
Krupp was basically brought in to replace Vladimir Konstantinov, who was tragically injured the summer before in the infamous limousine accident on Woodward after the Wings’ 1997 Cup celebration.
Plus, Krupp was coming to Detroit as a free-agent from the despised Colorado Avalanche organization so this was always going to be an uneasy marriage.
But shit got way worse when Krupp signed a four-year contract with the Wings and then only played in 32 games in Detroit. Yes, 32!!!!!
Due to back problems caused by a herniated disc, Krupp was rendered useless in the Motor City. And to make matters even worse, while Krupp was supposedly rehabbing his aching back, it turned out he was doing Iditarod-style dog sledding.
He was an absolute disaster, which eventually led to the Wings acquiring Chris Chelios.
Attempting to substitute Krupp for Vladdy wasn’t the worst attempt at replacing a beloved entity in the 1990s, though. That designation still goes to the producers of “Newsradio” who thought bringing in Jon Lovitz to carry on for the deceased Phil Hartman was a brilliant idea.
14) Torii Hunter
Hunter didn’t make this list for taking a bad route on David Ortiz’s grand slam in Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS.
And Hunter didn’t make this article because the statue of Willie Horton in left centerfield at Comerica Park had more defensive range than Torii in 2014.
Nope. Hunter solely is included here because of his fervent anti-gay stances which began with his thoughts on the potential of a homosexual teammate ….
“For me, as a Christian … I will be uncomfortable because in all my teachings and all my learning, biblically, it’s not right. It will be difficult and uncomfortable.”
And then it continued with his endorsement of a Republican Gubernatorial candidate in his home state of Arkansas ….
This is Pine Bluff native and Major League Baseball Player Torii Hunter. I’m asking you to vote for my friend Asa Hutchinson for Governor. Dr. King said that men should be judged by the content of their character. Today we too often prejudge political candidates by their party label. I’m asking you to consider Asa for his actions.
As a lawyer, Asa fought for more majority African-American districts in the state legislature. Asa is committed to the principles we hold dear, like a strong faith in God, equal justice for all, and keeping marriage between one man and one woman. Asa wants all children to have access to computer science, to expand charter schools, and bring more jobs and small businesses into our communities. Asa won’t take your vote for granted. Let’s make real change in our community by casting party labels aside and voting our convictions.
Yep, Hunter used Martin Luther King’s name in an endorsement for a man who spent his career trying to minimize the African-American vote. Other than trying to deny gay people basic human rights, Asa Hutchinson’s other pet project was gerrymandering Arkansas congressional districts in an attempt to circumvent the black vote.
Just remember that the next time someone tries to tell you what a great guy Torii Hunter is.
He’s a bigoted piece of shit who was on the wrong side of history.
And the wrong side of that fence in right field at Fenway Park, for that matter.
13) Joe Nathan
If it wasn’t bad enough that Nathan murdered the Tigers as a member of the Twins organization for years, he then came to Detroit and was a total abomination instead of the long-sought answer in the back of the bullpen.
When he came to Detroit in 2014, he put up an ERA of 4.81, a WHIP of 1.53 and a negative Wins Above Replacement. He was total puke garbage. The best thing he did for the Tigers was get injured in his first appearance the following season so we only had to deal with one year of his toxic personality.
His resume of deplorable acts while in Detroit included throwing a young Nick Castellanos under the bus; NEVER accepting blame for any of his own faults; and giving Tigers’ fans the middle finger AND the universal sign for “Fuck Off.”
Nathan was a terrible pitcher in Detroit during his short stint, but, remarkably, he was an even worse human being.
12) Sean Elliott
By 1993, Dennis Rodman had become a total malcontent for the Pistons and had to be traded. “The Worm” HATED Chuck Daly’s replacement (Ron Rothstein) and there were rumors he was threatening to kill himself in the VIP room of the Landing Strip and in the Palace parking lot.
He had to go. And he was eventually dealt to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for the high-scoring Elliott. Well, he was a lethal offensive threat UNTIL he got to Detroit.
Elliot went from scoring 17.1 points per game for the Spurs to an anemic 12.1 in Detroit. Worst yet, Elliot was sandbagging it in Auburn Hills and demanded to be traded back West.
So the Pistons worked out a deal to send Elliott to Houston in exchange for Robert Horry and Matt Bullard. But because of Elliot’s kidney issues, the Rockets backed out of that deal.
(And if this entire story wasn’t bad enough, IF the Pistons would have acquired Horry in 1994, the “Butterfly Effect Theory” most likely kicks in and “Big Shot Bob” probably isn’t playing for the Spurs during the 2005 NBA Finals thus Rasheed Wallace wouldn’t have been able to leave Horry wide open for a game-winning three-pointer at the end of Game 5.)
Elliott ended up miserably finishing out the season in Detroit and then the Spurs reacquired the forward that summer for pennies on the dollar.
Actually, Bill Curley might be an insult to the coinage George Washington appears on.
And what did Elliott do upon his return to Texas? He magically reverted back to his old self (averaging 18.1 points per game in 1995 and 20.0 in 1996), while finishing out his career with David Robinson.
11) Manny Legace
You might be asking yourself why Manny Freaking Legace is on this list. Simple. When Fedorov signed in Anaheim in the summer of 2003, the most vociferous anti-Sergei player on the Red Wings was this little midget Legace.
And because the DSR is the gatekeeper of #91’s legacy (no pun intended), Legace became extremely hated by this website. If not for Sergei Fedorov, that little ginger dipshit wouldn’t have a Stanley Cup ring.
Oh, the douche bag also was cheating on his wife with one of my spouse’s friends back in the day. Supposedly,he was doing that with a lot of girls he met at the Post Bar.
Don’t ever say anything bad about Sergei Fedorov around me. And if you do, you better not have any skeletons in your closet.
10) Shane Halter
Some of you might be asking yourself, “Who the hell is Shane Halter?” Well, back in the early part of the century, this asshole was a utility player on the Tigers. He was Don Kelly without the winning personality.
And Halter was another born-again, Bible thumper. You can trace Halter’s appearance on this list to exactly one month prior to 9/11.
On August 11, 2001, the Tigers were playing the Royals in Kansas City. I will let USA Today fill you in on the details …
Yep, Mike Sweeney tried to kill Tigers starting pitcher Jeff Weaver. And for no good reason. Furthermore, Weaver was about the only enjoyable aspect of the 2001 Tigers so this brawl was kind of disturbing to me.
Here is what then-Tiger manager Phil Garner had to say about Sweeney’s behavior ….
“The most vicious thing I’ve ever seen.
It was without provocation, as if that makes a difference, but I don’t think Weaver said anything to Sweeney. Sweeney charges the mound when Weaver had his back to him, and fires his helmet, then proceeds to knock him out of the game.
That’s a pretty good philosophy. A guy has a pretty good game going so you just run out and knock him out of the game.”
So where does Halter enter the equation? Well, he was playing third base that evening in KC. And when Sweeney charged Weaver, Halter did absolutely nothing. He didn’t move a muscle.
And while Sweeney was attempting to kill the “Dream Weaver,” just a few feet away Halter stood idly by with his finger up his ass.
Why?
Well, Halter played with Sweeney in Kansas City in 1997 and 1998 and they were CHRISTIAN BROTHERS. Yep, that’s what Halter told the media. He knew Sweeney was a Jesus disciple and if Sweeney attacked his OWN starting pitcher, he must have had a good reason to do so.
Halter allowing his born-again buddy to THROW A BATTING HELMET at his teammate and attempt to injure the best player on his team was the most traitorous behavior I’ve seen out of a Detroit athlete in my five decades of watching Detroit sports teams in action.
The disgust for this shitbag was so strong that we would go to Tigers games and call Halter “Shane Sweeney” until his days in Detroit were over. Which didn’t come soon enough.
9) Willie Huber
When I first started watching the Red Wings in my youth, they were TERRIBLE. They were nicknamed the “Dead Things” and Mike Ilitch had to give away cars during intermission in order to get anyone to come watch the team play at the JLA.
And my whipping boy during that era was a 6-foot-5, 225 pound defenseman who refused to use his size to hit ANYONE on the opposing team named Willie Huber.
The back of his hockey card said he was from Germany, but you’d have thought he was from Switzerland considering how passive he was on the ice.
Huber played in Detroit from 1978 to 1983. Five seasons. And his +/- was -104. Now, I have come to realize over the last 33 years that +/- isn’t a perfect stat, but MINUS 104 over five seasons? There is no way to put lipstick on that pig.
I was hoping to go through life experiencing only ONE Willie Huber, but alas, that wasn’t meant to be.
Which leads us to #8 on this list ….
8) Jonathan Ericsson
Swedish Willie Huber.
How much do I really have to say about this human pylon? He is only the third member of this list to be an active Detroit athlete, so you still get to experience the torture of watching him cough up the puck in his own zone or embarrassingly try to make exit passes.
Coincidentally, Ericsson is the EXACT size of Huber and like that Kraut blue-liner, “Big E” has never used his body to do anything other than impregnate his wife, Evelina.
The numerology comparisons are actually quite spooky. Do you know how old Huber was when he died? 52.
I am not kidding.
Anyway, instead of wasting any more time chronicling Ericsson’s inadequacies, I will let some Prashanth Iyer Tweets do the trick ….
From 2013-2016, his 5v5 score-adjusted relCA60 is +5.56, good for 317th out of 325 F’s who have played >1500 mins at 5v5
— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) June 7, 2016
Filing this one away in the Ericsson file. Never picks up head and identifies support, throws blind pass up boards pic.twitter.com/iBxSixMHGG
— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) April 9, 2016
“Adventures In Defending, Chapter 4,752 – starring Jonathan Ericsson” pic.twitter.com/pt501j9oFP
— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) April 21, 2016
Adventures in defending the netfront part #2 with Jonathan Ericsson pic.twitter.com/gWoiPmy0yl
— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) March 30, 2016
Finally got to rewatch the Ericsson giveaway…this is an inexcusable error to make for an NHL defenseman pic.twitter.com/WpkHw4AAeI
— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) March 20, 2016
Ahhh yes, the Jonathan Ericsson defensive special. Misplay the puck to the front of the net then sneak away pic.twitter.com/wQFZet7stz
— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) February 9, 2016
7) Dominic Raiola
Where do you even begin with this shitstain? Not only was Raiola a member of the Lions during the darkest days in franchise history — and that’s quite an accomplishment — but he also had a rap sheet of horrendous behavior, both on the field and off.
He once got suspended for stomping on an opponent’s leg before the biggest regular season game of his career. Yep, the undersized center missed Week 17 in Green Bay in 2014 when his team had a chance to win the division and obtain a first-round bye in the postseason.
Great teammate.
And who can forget when he pulled a Joe Nathan/Tyler Collins and gave the bird to Lions fans at Ford Field back in 2008?
But Raiola’s Picasso of abhorrent behavior came in 2013 when he verbally assaulted members of the Wisconsin marching band before a game against the Packers. Here is one band member’s firsthand account of Raiola’s actions:
I mean, this is a man who was given the Detroit Lions/Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association/Pro Football Writers Association’s Media-Friendly “Good Guy” Award in 2009.
Were his teammates all cannibals and sexual predators?
And even though Raiola uttered a homophobic slur to a poor kid in the U of W band; called another member of said band a “cunt”; and made fun of another’s weight, he STILL is employed by this franchise.
And people wonder why I have abandoned the Lions.
Raiola would most likely be in my top three but his one redeeming quality was he stood up to Kitna’s attempt to Jim Jones the Lions organization.
Tomorrow: My Top Six Most Hated Detroit Sports Athletes of All-Time
(You can follow the writer of this piece on Twitter @JeffMossDSR. Also, you can join in on the discussion of this article on Facebook by clicking here.)
