Read the opposing arguments from Sports Geek and Bleacher Fan.
Sports bring out true passion in many men. That’s certainly the case between the four writers here at TSD. And with that passion comes hate. Pure hate! There’s sports figures we all hate, and perhaps we’ll tackled that hatred another day.
Today we’re delving into the most hated sports teams of all time. When Sports Geek first presented this option as a debate, one team immediately came to mind for me – the 1986 Miami Hurricanes. I happened to watch the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, “The U,” late last year. I was appalled at some of the things I saw and immediately did some research. I talked to some older friends who had vivid memories of that era. The hate spans generations. That’s why the 1986 Miami Hurricanes are the most hated sports team ever.
I believe that the word “polarizing” is often overused in sports. It’s often used to describe guys like George Steinbrenner and Jerry Jones and teams like the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys. You either love one of them or you hate them. But I can’t imagine any sane person outside of South Beach, or maybe the state of Florida, rooted for the Miami Hurricanes back then. I really can’t. What’s to like about them?
We all know that Jimmy Johnson was the head coach of the Miami teams of that era. He took over for Howard Schnellenberger and gave the U an extra swagger. He would prove to be an excellent coach, but modest would be a word to describe Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno, not Jimmy Johnson. He was a coach who gave his players a lot of freedom. He let the players roam around like the little troublemakers they were. From a personal standpoint, is not a good thing in South Beach to have that type of freedom. It is easy to question how Johnson was so successful as a coach. If you get right down to it, he really didn’t have a lot of control of some of his players in Dallas and he was quite successful there also.
I also lump that era of the Miami Hurricanes with Michael Irvin. He was unbearably cocky and it’s a trait that definitely followed him to the NFL. He represented that Miami team to much of America. It was a team of thugs that didn’t respect the game and who had players that got caught with guns on campus. What people seem to forget about that brash 1986 team… they choked in the championship game against Penn State. Much of the country rejoiced as potty-mouthed Hurricanes were dethroned.
Looking at it some 25 years later, that team had a reputation like an Oakland Raiders team. It’d be more likely to see many of the players in a police lineup than on a football field. It’s like putting O.J. Simpson, Rae Carruth, Pacman Jones, and Donte Stallworth all on the same team and rooting for that team. Who wants to do that? Whoever wanted their child walking around wearing a Rae Carruth jersey?
I think that is what it was like to root for the Miami Hurricanes in 1986. And that’s why they are the most hated team ever.
