In Philadelphia, we can love harder than anyone. Yeah, there will always be some people who just hate everything. But for the most part, Philly fans are not as tough as our reputation suggests. If someone plays hard and keeps it honest with us, we will forgive a lot of faults.
Yeah, there were times when fans got on Jimmy Rollins. Now that he is no longer on the field though, fans have nothing but love for him. And you don’t even need to be as great on the field as Jimmy was. Fans still have a love affair with TJ McConnell.
Easy To Get On Our Bad Side
But with all that said, when you get on the fan’s bad side, man we can hate with a passion. There have been many people in Philly sports that quickly turned into villains. Guys like Chip Kelly will forever be hated here.
You can tell by how a bunch of his former players all went on a podcast together to rip Chip Kelly apart. Fans seem to all agree with those players. We loved Chip Kelly his first two seasons here, but now you will have a hard time finding anyone with a nice thing to say about the guy.
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Now to be eligible for the list, you had to at some point as least be tolerated by Philly fans. So clowns like Orlando Scandrick who showed up, sucked for a few games, and then started bad-mouthing everyone in the Eagles organization, don’t count. That guy was never important enough to love and now is too irrelevant to truly hate.
This list is for people who at some point, were supposed to be important or well-liked people here. But whose actions in games, or off the field/court turned them into villains.
Here are 12 people in Philly Sports who became villains like Chip Kelly:
Jonathan Gannon
I don’t know if he ever hit beloved status per se, but there was some hype for him with how much national media types gushed about him. He was being called a future Head Coach from the moment he got here.
His first season sucked though. That soured fans on him. The results were much better last season, until the Super Bowl that is. His Super Bowl performance sucked. Pretty much no one on the defense played well. And if everyone sucks, it is usually coaching. Reid stole his lunch money. By the end, Eagles fans were praying someone hired him as a Head Coach.
Turns out, he was already making his head coach plans before the Super Bowl started. He talked to the Cardinals, behind the Eagles’ back, while he was supposed to be prepping for the Super Bowl. To make it worse, he lied about it, telling us he wasn’t talking to anyone yet because he still had a job to do. But on Draft night we learned that was not true. The Eagles settled with the Cardinals on tampering charges. But that doesn’t make what he did ok.
Add on that he stole some Philly coaches for his staff and lied about Philly media calling for him to be fired, yea, it’s safe to say he is disliked in Philly right now.
(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Al Horford
Al Horford was never loved here, but he was at the least respected. Then he signed here, had his worst season ever, and was out after one year.
We hated him before he got here because he would play well and frustrate Embiid when they played. We expected him to bring some of that to Philly. Instead, he struggled, complained about his role, left, and then started playing well again. To make it even worse, his sister Anna may be the most annoying person on Twitter.
(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Scott Rolen
I was too young to care enough when he skipped town. But ask any Phillies fan older than me, and they still hold a grudge against Rolen.
Between refusing to resign with the Phillies, not playing on Scott Rolen Night, and turning around to call St Louis Baseball heaven, Phillie fans are not fans of their former 3rd baseman. In fairness to him, the Phillies organization did suck at that point, and the Cardinals were a great team to play for. Still, he could have been less of a dick about it.
(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Carson Wentz
Yea, there was no way this guy was not landing on this list. The guy was the city’s hero at one point. A few years later, he was statistically one of the worst QBs in the league, and getting replaced by Jalen Hurts. What makes it worse, is how he handled it all. He never mentally recovered from Nick Foles winning it all. The rest of his time it was like he was looking over his shoulder at the backup. Not being able to stay physically healthy didn’t help.
Just a year after signing his extension, he was traded. It worked out for Philly, because now we have Jalen Hurts. But to go from the Greatest Eagles Qb ever, to gone, that fast, that’s impressive.
There was also talk about him being upset while Nick Foles was leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl. Every behind-the-scenes story just paints Wentz as a bit of a loser. The fact he hasn’t stuck with any other team since then… yea, it shows there was something wrong with him. he is not even a starter in the NFL at this point.
(Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)
Cutter Gauthier
Cutter was supposed to be part of the Flyer’s resurgence. People pictured him and Matvei Michkov as being an elite duo on the Flyers 1st line. Then all of the sudden, he was gone. we soon learned that he had no interest in playing in Philly, and ghosted Keith Jones and Danny Briere.
Why was he so deadset against playing here? We still don’t know. Some people say it is because of John Tortorella. Others think it was because he wanted to play in the NHL and they kept him down for another season. Whatever the case, he is gone. As a fanbase, we instantly hated the kid.
Maybe he had a good reason. We might never know. But for his entire career, he is going to get booed whenever he plays in Philly. There is no chance fans ever forgive him after he pushed his way out like that.
Terrell Owens
Until a recent player, who we will get to later, T.O. took the sharpest heel turn in Philly sports history. During the Super Bowl run, he was the most popular man in Philly. If he stuck around, and maybe won the Super Bowl, he may have gone down as the most popular man in Philly Sports history. Instead, he and McNabb both acted immature, and Joe Banner foolishly let the best WR in Eagles history walk away. That Reid era never quite peaked again. To make it worse he became a Cowboy afterwards.
It was not just his fault. Everyone involved in the situation acted poorly. But T.O. was the most public with his immaturity. So at the time, he took the majority of the ire. Joe Banner probably deserves it the most in hindsight. T.O. signing with the Cowboys the next season did not help things though, and for years no one heard louder boos than Terrell Owens in Philadelphia.
All these years later, the ire has died down a bit. He is probably more popular in Philly than McNabb is.
(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Chip Kelly
Chip Kelly could do no wrong in his first season here. He turned the Eagles around, got 10 wins and a playoff berth, and his offense was the best show in football. The 2nd year was a little bit of a step back. Despite Desean Jackson being a star in his system, he pushed him out. But fans still stood by Chip. They missed the playoffs, but still had 10 wins and hopes were still high.
Then he changed everything. Traded LeSean McCoy, let Jeremy Maclin walk, and brought in Sam Bradford. Still, fans convinced themselves it would be the year thanks in part to one great Pre-Season performance vs the Packers.
It was not the year. As we all should have predicted, it was a disaster. All the major flaws of his system were on full display. The up-tempo offense stalled, and because it moved so fast, the defense was constantly on the field, and tired.
Chip Kelly was making enemies left and right, his whole attitude wore thin, and a guy that was the savior became the bad guy. He was fired before the end of his 3rd year, and now you would have a hard time finding anyone in the Tri-State area who says they like Chip Kelly.
(Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
Gabe Kapler
To be fair, people hated this guy right away. So he sticks out a bit amongst these other guys who were well-liked for at least a single off-season. But I cant do a list of Philly Villains without this dude.
His in-game decisions were maddening, and his overly optimistic post-game press conferences were infuriating. The guy would lie right to our faces like we were dumb. His personality was never the right match for this town. And his incompetence as a manager only made that worse.
Andrew Bynum
Andrew Bynum was the man here for about a couple of months. When the Sixers made the big trade to bring him in, he was supposed to be the guy who would turn things around. His introductory press conference was a party. Sixers fans lost their minds. The problem is, he literally never played a minute of basketball in a Sixers uniform.
You usually can’t blame a guy for injuries. But you can maybe make an exception for that when he injures himself bowling on a bad knee. He missed all of his one and only season in Philly.
In his defense, he had degenerative knee issues that pretty much ended his career. He would try to play for the Cavs the next year, and later the Pacers. For them, he at least got onto the floor. But he never reached the potential he showed with the Lakers. So can you blame fans for being upset that a guy they were so excited to see play for the Sixers never actually did so,
The failure of the Bynum trade is what sparked the Process, which eventually brought Joel Embiid to town. So in a way, it worked out. But that doesn’t make Bynum any more popular in Philly.
(Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)
Donovan McNabb
McNabb should be the man in Philly. He is the best QB in Eagles history. He helped give us some of the best years of Eagles football apart from the recent era where we finally won. But Eagles fans and McNabb were never a good match. Eagles fans booed him when he was drafted.
Let’s be clear, booing him was dumb and those fans were clearly idiots. But McNabb never quite got over it. He held a grudge for years, which made it hard for Eagles fans to ever attach to him.
So many former Eagles, including McNabb’s teammates, still have some connection to Philly, even if they don’t live here. Not so much for McNabb. We rarely see him around the team, or doing anything in the city. Which is a shame. Fans were unfair to him, but his attitude back towards fans, and him holding that grudge, did not help things.
When so many other athletes went through similar things, yet still found a way to create a good relationship with fans, it tells you a bit about McNabb. Mike Schmidt was booed a ton, he still loves Philly and is around the team. The same goes for Ryan Howard. Even Jimmy Rollins dealt with some of it. All are now beloved by fans. If McNabb just sucked it up, he could be the man here. Now, sadly, it barely feels like he is part of the team’s history.
Credit: Jamie Squire /Allsport
James Harden
Not only did his awful play in 4 games against the Celtics help cost them that series. Then he forced his way out. Harden opted into his deal, but then requested a trade, with his eyes set on the Clippers. He cried foul that the Sixers mistreated him, but anyone who followed the ordeal knows that is not the case. Harden was just upset that there was no market for him in free agency.
We should have seen it coming. It is exactly what he did at the end in Houston, and then in Brooklyn. But we were blinded by the excitement of him joining the Sixers.
(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Ben Simmons
And we saved the biggest villain for last. Ben was the man here. Billed as the next Lebron. For years Sixers fans protected him from all the criticism. We genuinely believed he would learn to shoot, and become the Super Star he was supposed to be. Year after year it did not happen. But up until the end, Sixers fans still stuck by him. Even while he was bricking FT after FT in the Hawks series they supported him. Then he passed up an open dunk in Game 7 vs the Hawks.
We can call that the straw that broke the camel’s back. Making it even worse, Ben Simmons refused to play basketball the next year, stabbed his teammates in the back, and forced his way out. His camp leaked fake story after fake story about how mean Sixers fans were, and the National Media gobbled it up, somehow making us the bad guy in the situation. His complete lack of a career since vindicates us, though we are still waiting on the apology for all the lies spread about us.
(Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
