Football is the ultimate team sport.
All 11 players on a given side really need to all get on the same page and play together, within their system to have any sort of sustainable success.
And while a lot of that is X’s and O’s there is also a relational component to it—which is why it is crucial that teams keep the ‘bad teammate, disgruntled superstar type’ to a minimum. Especially with today’s media coverage… Nothing will throw a team into chaos quite like a guy who can’t get along—either with the rest of the team, the media, or the fans.
That said, there are still quite a few players in the league today, who’ve managed to stick around, usually because of their talent, despite being absolutely hated – at times by their teammates and fans alike.
Let’s take a look at the 10 MOST HATED NFL players in the league today.
Eli Apple
Who better to start with than Eli Apple, a talented, but inconsistent cornerback, who seems to have been despised, by his peers and fans alike… pretty much since he broke into the league back in 2016.
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His career started in New York, with the Giants, where the former Buckeye mixed with that locker room like oil and water.
It got so bad that New York’s All-Pro safety, Landon Collins—the undisputed leader of the unit at the time—called Apple out in the media: “There’s only just one corner that … needs to grow, and we all know who that is,” Collin said, adding, “But that first pick … he’s a cancer.”
I’m not sure exactly what played out behind closed doors… His mother’s continued pursuit of the limelight definitely drew the ire of some fans, so it is possible that those antics rubbed his teammates the wrong way.
And, of course, his self-centered attitude probably didn’t help.
In the time since his days as a Giant, Apple has made three more stops: New Orleans, Carolina, and Cincinnati—and, really, none of those have been any better… New Orleans and Carolina in particular—were marred with injuries and mockery.
Then, he had his Super Bowl humiliation in Cinci, when he surrendered the game winning touchdown to Cooper Kupp and the entire internet proceeded to dance all over his grave.
As if it wasn’t obvious enough how much he was hated before that night…
It became utterly undeniable.
Jalen Ramsey
Eli Apple isn’t the only cornerback that has rubbed people the wrong way over the years…
Jalen Ramsey, though extremely talented, has developed quite a reputation for himself over the years as well. Some of it stems from that fiery attitude that he plays the game with… I suppose that a guy like Ramsey, who is routinely butting heads with others on the field, is going to make some enemies along the way.
But it does seem like the disdain for him has been elevated beyond mere competitive tension.
Probably because Ramsey knows how talented he is as a player and feels like it gives him the liberty to, really, do as he pleases…
Whether it was calling out the coaches in Jacksonville—or having full-on blowups like he did with Doug Marrone, which subsequently resulted in him requesting a trade, Ramsey has no problem letting barbs fly.
There are some aspects of Jalen Ramsey’s persona that have mellowed out to some degree as he’s gotten older… But at his core, he is still the same guy that did that GQ article back in 2018, when he roasted half the quarterbacks in the league.
Even Eli Manning, an aging fan favorite around the league, caught some strays. “I won’t say Eli’s good; I’ll say Odell’s good. And their connection is good.”
That kind of behavior, especially from a younger player, which he was at the time of the comments, is a good way to make some enemies around the league.
Defensive backs have always had a sort of edge to them over the years. I think it comes with the territory of their position—they play and, really, exist on an island and to do that successfully, you really have to not give a damn what other people think of you.
Interestingly, there have been quite a few players on the other side of their defensive assignments—the wide receivers—who found a way to land themselves among the league’s most hated players.
Juju Smith Schuster
Juju is an entirely different story… He was actually one of the more popular young names in the league. Especially because of the way he emerged from the ashes Antonio Brown left in the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver room.
Smith-Schuster went for 111 receptions and 1426 yards in 2018, Brown’s final year with the organization, leading the team in both categories—and AB, being the consummate teammate he was, clearly took his success as a personal afront.
And he let the world know it the following year, when he called him out on social media, after Juju had a crucial fumble down the stretch of the 2019 season.
Fans applauded the young wide receiver for taking the high road—and he became one of the most well-liked players in the league.
Unfortunately for Smith-Schuster, all of that goodwill seemed to vaporize over the next couple of years—and all because of his obsession with dancing and posting TikToks.
The anti-Smith-Schuster fervor really took off in November of 2021 when he posted a video of himself dancing on the Cowboys’ logo at midfield.
And, thus, the “TikTok Boy” moniker was born—turning the tides on the young wide receiver.
Though Juju seems like a nice person at his core—his slipups, or I guess, behavior, online has really caused him to fall out of favor. He just doesn’t seem to think things all the way through before he does them.
Like during his last season in Pittsburgh when he told the media ahead of their playoff game with Cleveland that they’re “nameless gray faces” and that at the end of the day “the Browns is the Browns.”
And as you can imagine, the ember of mockery this incident initially got exploded after Pittsburgh got embarrassed 48 to 37 in an upset.
Though the conversation has quieted slightly in the time since, Juju has never really found his way back into the good graces of the NFL world.
Tyreek Hill
Hill really hit the ground running after breaking into the NFL as a fifth-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He got his feet wet year 1, earning All-Pro honors as a kick returner and totaling 593 yards and six touchdowns, then really took it to the next level in 2017, nearly doubling his yardage and tacking on another tudder.
Then, of course, Patrick Mahomes was slotted in for Alex Smith—and as they say: the rest is history. Kansas City developed one of the most potent offenses the league has ever seen. And Hill was a HUGE part of that. Which led people to wonder how the man known as Cheetah, who ran a mind-number 4.29 40 and had legit track speed to go along with his ball skills fell to the fifth round of the draft…
A closer look revealed that he had bounced around to and from a couple of different schools… Garden City Community College—then to Oklahoma State, before settling at West Alabama. Sadly, it turns out that the last move was the direct result of serious domestic abuse allegations.
Once NFL fans found this out, it was a wrap for Hill’s reputation. Particularly because of his unabashed personality—that doesn’t exactly scream contrition.
Fans also weren’t crazy that Hill essentially forced the Chiefs’ hand into trading him to the Miami Dolphins, albeit for a first, second, two fourths and sixth-round draft picks. I think that the way fans—and even some players around the league saw it—is that Kansas City had been the team to take a chance on him and give him an opportunity in the league.
Plus, he had the good fortune of playing with the league’s best quarterback—yet he still became disgruntled in favor of a floundering Dolphins organization, which, you probably could’ve guessed already, but after seeing Miami give him a four-year, $160million contract that made him the highest paid wide receiver in NFL history—his behavior was always all about the money.
We all know that is the reality of the NFL business on many levels, but for someone like Tyreek Hill that is only going turn people against him even more.
Travis Kelce
The hate he gets its honestly not too dissimilar to that of his former teammate in Kansas City, Travis Kelce.
Of course, Kelce is a much more accomplished player… But the pass-catching tight end has definitely caught some strays over the years for his brash, outspoken attitude.
Most recently—his post-Super Bowl victory comments, when he continued to sound off that nobody believed in the Chiefs all year.
Something no one should really be able to say with a straight face…
Kelce runs his mouth so much that even his own quarterback has had enough—as evidenced by Mahomes’ jumping in before Kelce could speak when the team was at the White House celebrating the Super Bowl victory.
If the man who has thrown him 30 touchdowns over the last three seasons is sick of his schtick, just imagine how the rest of the league, the media, and the non-Chiefs fans feel.
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Lane Johnson
Though it is a little uncharacteristic—because he plays on the offensive line…. Eagles offensive tackle, Lane Johnson, has fallen into the same trap as Kelce.
Over the years, his outspoken ways have rubbed plenty of people the wrong way.
Like the time he said, ““I just pissed in everybody’s Cheerios. And everybody in Boston — hey, I’ve got hate mail I still haven’t read. I’m looking forward to reading it.”
He hasn’t just had issues with Pats fans… and Cowboys fans… and Giants fans—he even drew the ire of his own fanbase back in 2015, when he said that the Birds didn’t really have a home-field advantage anymore because the fans didn’t care.
Most of Philly has likely forgiven him now that the team has had so much success, but still a poignant example of the brash behavior that has made him one league’s most hated players.
Now—it is time to enter the quarterback-centric portion of our program… Where, shockingly, the guys who make the money in the by far, have made some enemies along the way—usually for being outspoken, underachieving, and overpaid.
Baker Mayfield
In fact, that is exactly what seems to have happened with both Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray… Two former number one overall pick and once-popular players, who have now become… basically the laughingstocks of the league.
Mayfield looked like the chosen one in Cleveland—and now he’s bouncing around teams like a journeyman receiver. And, of course, doing so with his insane ‘chip on the shoulder’ schtick that everyone hates.
Kyler Murray
And Murray, well… The Cardinals quarterback refuses to put down the video game controller and pickup his playbook—and he continues to blame everyone except himself for his—and the team’s struggles.
For Kyler, this hit a fever pitch after his humiliating playoff debut—and the fallout the following season, when he continued to publicly buttheads with Arizona’s then-head coach, Kliff Kingsbury.
No one wants to see diva behavior from a guy, who had a passer rating of 40.9 with 137 yards and 2 interceptions during his lone playoff appearance.
Russell Wilson
Speaking of diva behavior… No shocker here, but people now love to hate Russell Wilson, another once-popular quarterback, who was beloved for his underdog mentality and his rise from being a third-round pick to a Super Bowl champion.
But apparently, his ego got the best of him. Because shortly after—whispers started to emerge from the Seattle locker room that his teammates were sick of him—and in the years following those whispers turned to screams and even public callouts.
And while he had his fair share of defenders in those years—now everyone seems to be on the same page after seeing him show up in Denver, demand his own office, ostracize his teammates, and lay an absolute egg on the field!
Tough look for number 3 to say the least.
Deshaun Watson
Last, but not least… We would be remiss not to mention the poster child for hate in the NFL… Deshaun Watson.
This name, sadly, appears on this list for obvious reasons. Particularly in Houston, where after getting Texans fans hopes up that they might have a quarterback…. Pretty much for the first time ever—he absolutely tornadoes the entire franchise—with his horrendous behavior.
For anyone who was living under a rock, Watson rewarded the organization that drafted him and inked him to a lucrative, long-term extension, by almost immediately requesting a trade THEN absolutely tanking his trade value by catching nearly two years of suspension for being so insanely creepy.
Insanely creepy might be underselling it… Catching allegations from dozens of women is nasty business.
Players… fans… the media… Most anyone with a brain has had it with Deshaun Watson at this point. Especially with the salt in the wound that is his astronomical, fully guaranteed contract that Cleveland gave him after they acquired him from the Texans.
On the bright side—if he continues to play the way he did after returning from suspension last year, we won’t have to deal with him in the NFL that much longer… and in the meantime, at least we all have someone to root against now!
A unified target for the entire NFL world community to loath together.
Which NFL player do you think is the worst teammate today? Did we miss anything?
