Clap it up for Monty ladies and gentleman! Our old friend Colin Montgomerie was named Captain of the 2010 European Ryder Cup Team. It seems like it was only yesterday that every American golf fan was hating on Monty’s Britishness.
For the record, I love Montgomerie, probably because everyone else hates him.
There has been a long tradition of American sports fans hating most things foreign. Let’s take a look at the foreigners we have grown to hate:
Colin Montgomerie:
Claude Lemiuex - Claudes “cheap shot,” on Kris Draper led to instant animosity between any American hockey and the other Lemiuex. After Claude turtled in his intial fight with Darren McCarty, Claude stood toe to toe and went to blows with the Detroit tough guy.
Jan Ulrich – No one, and I mean no one, has the right to challenge our Tour De France champion. Jan was Lance’s foil, even though he never won, so we all disliked him.
This might not actually be him:
But this definitely is:
Ivan Drago – Even though he was fictional, there wasn’t an American in the theater was rooting for the big Russian.
Sebastian Janikowski – Maybe it’s because this guy had a couple ecstasy related charges at FSU, but its really hard to like this guy, regardless of his ability to kick the ball several thousand yards.
Aleksander Karelin – This cat had never lost in international competition. He was the real life Ivan Drago. But Rulon Gardner beat him in the finals of the heavyweight division of the Greco-Roman wrestling competition in Sydney in 2000. I still can’t believe that Gardner won and I can’t honestly say that I was rooting for the unbeatable to be beat.
Iron Sheik - I can’t honestly say I hated anyone more than this guy growing up.
Lennox Lewis - I was one of several million fans who were dumb founded by the fact that this guy kept winning.  The fact of the matter is, Lennox Lewis was the best heavyweight in the world for a solid eight years. That being said, it felt good to see this:
Slava Medvedenko – I blame Stephen A. Smith and his repeated annunciating of Slava’s name for America’s dislike of his guy. After this interview, I definitely have a special place in my heart for the well spoken Ukrainian.
Borat?
Darko Milicic – I blame only Joe Dumars for America’s bad feelings toward this guy. Do you think he wanted to be drafted #2, ahead of D. Wade, Carmelo and Chris Bosh? Well…maybe he did, because he got a boatload of money. In any event, he was doomed to be disliked by every basketball fan in Detroit, and every other city in which he played.
(NSFW) – I’m not sure this is exactly what he said, but I guess I can imagine him saying it:
Take this Dikembe and T-Mac:
Sometimes these guys do use our hate against us, but only very rarely.
The Angry T
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