The average New Yorker has lots of villains in their bustling lives. One might be at odds with their bodega guy who didn't spread enough American on their chopped cheese. (Extra slice, please!) Maybe it's someone in front of you who was walking a little too slow while you were in a rush. Others may be cross with that one friend who keeps on making plans to hang out in Times Square.
Suffice to say, everybody has an enemy here in New York, and one of the most uniting ways people in this city come together is banding together against a singular villain. And there's no better way to collectively enjoy disliking someone intensely than to choose one of the many who populate the New York sports world.
The Big Apple occupies a unique perch thanks to its immense variety of teams: it is simultaneously home to ridiculous champions and horrendous losers. I'm talking about teams so good they live on forever, becoming world-famous. Obviously the Knicks are front and center as of late.
The Yankees, and their many championships, made them icons and the Yankee cap a style flex. On the other side of the coin over in Queens, the Mets are so horrendous that when they don't lose by triple digits the fans consider it a success. (Or, as Casey Stengel famously asked—and Jimmy Breslin later immortalized in his book title—"Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?") As for the Nets, some things are better left unsaid.
Image: Daiei Onoguchi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0; cropped and color-corrected by NYSafeBets.
But back to the Knicks: a team that had more ups and downs than a J train ride. Amid their recent historic run which captured the hearts and minds of not just the city, but the whole dang world, one villain that united the Big Apple and the rest of humanity in unadulterated hatred was Spurs star Victor Wembanyama.
Just hearing his cutesy nickname, Wemby, is enough to make any Knicks fan puke. As the team was closing in on a triumphant run in June, Wemby was the face of everything in their way and became public enemy No. 1 around the five boroughs.
It's not just that Wemby was their opponent; he also played dirty. Remember Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Finals, when he shoved hometown hero Jalen Brunson? It was a sight that would go down in NBA history —almost as if he punched Lady Liberty in the face herself. Not only that, the foul by the towering player (he's a staggering 7-foot-4) was totally ignored by the refs, which was indignity on top of indignity. Even though the Knicks wound up winning the big enchilada, Wemby earns his sour place in the grim Hall of Fame.
Image: Andrew Malone / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; cropped and color-corrected.
Whatever hate New York has against Wemby, it's fresh compared to generations of burning, seething and utter disdain locals have for the Boston Red Sox. Like oil and water, the Yankees and Red Sox make up baseball's biggest rivalry.
This one's got deep roots, dating back over a century: 1903, in fact, the year the two teams first faced off. As legend goes, the fierce hate between both teams began in 1919 when Babe Ruth was sold from the Sox to the Yanks, sparking the everlasting Curse of the Bambino. As a result, let's put the entirety of the Sox roster, all 125 years of it, into the Hall of Fame, with prime spots reserved for the likes of Big Papi (David Ortiz) himself who consistently gave indigestion and heartburn to Yankee fans in the 00s.
Then there's Nomar Garciaparra, a shortstop to rival Yankee icon Derek Jeter, while Johnny Damon would have surely landed a spot in the Hall of Fame if the hated Sox player hadn't gone on to become a Yankee himself. (Hell, let's induct him anyway!) Meanwhile, Pedro Martinez is a hated Sox player beyond reproach, famously stoking the flames of hate among Yankee fans by infamously croaking at one point that the Yankees were his daddy (ouch) and even threw then-bench coach and baseball legend Don Zimmer down on the ground during a 2003 bench-clearing brawl. For all of these reasons, the Sox have earned their rightful spot.
Image: Jeffrey Beall / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0; cropped and color-corrected.
Speaking of our (not so friendly) neighbors in Massachusetts, there's another villain who was the subject of metropolitan vitriol throughout his playing career. With his movie-star good looks and long marriage to a bona fide supermodel, Tom Brady already gives us enough fodder to hate him.
The fact that he played for the steamrolling team that was the New England Patriots earns his rightful spot in the Hall of Fame, with the Pats regularly dominating the AFC East, leaving the Jets fuming in their wake. In fact, comparing the Pats and the Jets is like comparing a filet mignon to a chicken nugget. Sad to say, there was no competition, as hapless Jets fans looked on as the captain of the machine was the smug and young Brady (before he was picking fights with the likes of Logan Paul, that is).
Before he retired, Brady was always swooping in and out of MetLife, leaving New York fans foaming at the mouth with rage. Using the above evidence, Tom Brady is hereby inducted. The only thing that soothes the hate is the Giants beating his Patriots in the Super Bowl, twice. It had to be said.
That's not to say that the only sports villains in the eyes of New York fans are from other cities. No, sir. In fact, New Yorkers are perhaps tougher on their own players than they are on their far-off enemies. Having said that, I give you: the New York Jets.
I don't want to say the Jets are bad, but even murmuring the name of the team around longtime fans can trigger a headache so strong, they'll be reaching for the Tylenol, extra strength please. In fact, the Jets have been so disappointing for so long, many fans are resigned to their grim fate and still participate in rituals like opening weekend with a ghostlike mentality of going through the motions. (Either that, or they just tailgate themselves into oblivion).
Who's to blame for the never-ending humiliation?
Into the Hall of Fame, I'd like to call up coaches like Robert Saleh or Adam Gase, who ran the team as if they were captains of the Titanic. Then there's the players who were supposed to save the team, but instead stuck in a knife and twisted it deeper. Aaron Rodgers, anybody? The star QB came to the Jets with high hopes, then promptly tore his Achilles. Rodgers was so upset, one imagines he shed a few tears into the giant pile of money the Jets paid the poor gent for the pleasure of not playing. Let's throw him in the Hall of Fame too, and throw away the key while we're at it.
Image: Michael Miller / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0; cropped and color-corrected.
Yes it's true that baseball, football and basketball get a lot of the glory in New York these days. But over in Madison Square Garden, when the Knicks clear out and Taylor Swift isn't getting married there, one blue-collar team has been fighting their way through villains galore.
When I was a kid, I remember when the New York Rangers won a Stanley Cup. The year was 1994, and it ended a 54-year drought. Sadly, it kicked off another drought that's lasted to this day, and one of the main characters who exemplify the Rangers' nasty fight since then is none other than Sidney Crosby. Yes, Penguins player and team captain Sid the Kid may be considered one of the best hockey players of all time, but in the Big Apple, this kid is persona non grata considering the Penguins are Enemy No. 1 on any list drafted with rage by beleaguered Rangers fans.
But aside from any on-ice rivalry, there are plenty of other lines on his resume that earn him a place in the Hall of Fame. Case in point: his clashes with Rangers standouts like Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky, with Crosby getting under New York players' skin as if it were part of the job. (Then again, we're talking about hockey, so maybe it is). Meanwhile, as Tom Brady has proven, New York hates a golden boy, and Crosby is one of the league's biggest stars. It's not that we're jealous, it's just that we wish he played for us.
From Crosby to Brady, Wemby to the whole stinkin' Red Sox, these are the villains I propose to be entered into the dubious Hall of Fame. Everybody else better stay on their toes and get out of New York's way: there's plenty of room left. Because if any tried-and-true New Yorker had their way, complaining would become a sport of its own.
