Packer Central

NFL Fans Love to Hate Brady, Rodgers

Not surprisingly, the Green Bay Packers' MVP quarterback is hated by the home states of his NFC North rivals.

Bill Huber

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For NFL fans, it’s a love-hate relationship with Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.

Brady is the most-hated player in 36 states, according to BetOnline. The online sportsbook tracked Twitter data for more than a month, analyzing more than 130,000 tweets based on geotags, hashtags and direct keyword associations related to fans’ disdain for NFL players.

On the other hand, from March 1, 2020, through Feb. 28, 2021, Brady’s jersey was the No. 1 seller, according to the NFLPA.

Not surprisingly considering how Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers have dominated the NFC North over the years, Rodgers is the most hated player in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan. He’s also the most-hated player in North Dakota, which is a neighbor of Minnesota.

Rodgers was fifth in jersey sales during the aforementioned 12-month period.

Rodgers, of course, has taken slings and arrows from across the country following a tumultuous offseason. He remains a hot topic of conversation among national pundits, with Pro Football Talk and Yahoo Sports writing negative pieces about Rodgers this week.

“I strongly believe in everybody’s ability to have an opinion and I respect that the fact that they have an opinion and should have an opinion,” Rodgers said. “My issue is a platform given to individuals who only desire to say inflammatory things that are not based in fact. So, partially, I think I would be a little sensitive to people questioning my commitment to this team. I said it from the start, if I wasn’t 100 percent committed to this squad and my team, then I wouldn’t have come back. Now maybe people thought that was some sort of cliché line or obligatory statement, but it was the truth.”

Here is the state-by-state breakdown:

Map Courtesy BetOnline
Map Courtesy BetOnline

Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady: 36 states

Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Antonio Brown: 6 states

Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers: 4 states

Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield: 2 states

Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson: 1 state

New Orleans Saints QB Jameis Winston: 1 state

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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