Top-5 Mac Musings – September 2, 2025

TEAMS YOU JUST NATURALLY ROOT AGAINST
I am not sure how it happened, but it is suddenly September. Which can only mean one thing… Yes, I am playing Earth Wind and Fire on repeat. My playlist is nothing if not predictably eclectic. That is a story for another day.

During my college athletics career working in communications I was able to share remarkable stories of triumph, student-athletes overcoming adversity and excelling despite obstacles that would have stopped many dreams dead in their tracks. I have shared many in this space in the past. 

Today is not that kind of day. I have been fighting a bit of a cold and I woke up a bit cranky. So… y’all are in for a treat today.

Today I am going to discuss teams and players I actively dislike and root against. I definitely didn’t invent this phrase, but, “My favorite team is the Portland Trail Blazers and anyone playing the Lakers” remains true today as whenever it was I first heard it.

STORY TIME
One of my dad’s favorite sports stories comes from one of the truly dark times in Oregon vs. Oregon State football. It was 1983 and both the Beavers and the Ducks would have needed to improve dramatically to be called “putrid”. In the Civil War Game that year the Ducks and the Beavers combined to score *checks notes* zero (0) combined points. 

Looking at the box score of that game is… haunting. Immediately dubbed the “Toilet Bowl” 33,176 rain-soaked fans were treated to 11 turnovers, four missed field goals and 16 punts. As Dante acknowledged in his masterwork “Inferno” this game is played on loop in the third ring of hell. Probably.

What continues to delight my dad decades later is Oregon State coach Joe Avazano – who later became the special teams coach under Barry Switzer for the Cowboys last Super Bowl win which is trapped on dusty VHS tapes somewhere in a Blockbuster Video near you.

In his postgame interview Avazano was apoplectic about the field conditions of the Autzen Stadium field in Eugene and generally bitched and moaned about everything from the chalk on the field to the horrible conditions and just generally took no accountability for anything while the rain continued to hammer down.

Now, Top-5 lists of my least favorite teams by sport! You’re welcome.

Basketball

1. Los Angeles Lakers – Past, present and future. Just… never
2. Santa Clara – Among many (many) reasons, Kurt Rambis went there and later tormented my Blazers as a Laker.
3. Notre Dame – Bonus story time loading (see below)… primarily I just despise Digger Phelps.
4. Duke – I once sat next to Grant Hill’s mother at his Hall of Fame press conference and I confessed my distaste for all things Duke. She forgave me. Lovely woman.
5. Detroit Pistons –  The 1990 NBA Finals still haunts my dreams.

Football

1. Ohio State… Oh how I hate…
2. Michigan… Jim Harbaugh was the best and worst thing to ever happen to them
3. New York Giants… Just relentlessly lucky.
4. Dallas Cowboys… This hatred is tempered by how hilarious it is to watch the ongoing trainwreck of Jerry Jones.
5. Florida… Steve Spurrier. Enough said.

Baseball

1. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim… Their star outfielder tried to kill Queen Elizabeth II. IYKYK. 
2. St. Louis Cardinals… They cut Bob Uecker!
3. Any team managed by Tony La Russa… What. A. DICK.
4. Any team managed by Buck Showalter… He makes chemists seem charismatic.
5. New York Yankees… They hired and fired (!) George Costanza… Jerks.

Mac Musings for Tuesday, September 2.

1. I spent about 10 minutes thinking about it but I could not come up with any vitriol or bad feelings for the following sports: soccer (except the USMNT), hockey (except the Chicago Black Hawks) and curling (those damn Finns).
2. Bonus Story Time: The University of San Francisco dropped its then top-10 basketball program due to scandal in the early 1980s and reinstated it four years later. As the program came back it somehow finangled a way to get Notre Dame to play them in San Francisco during the 1988-89 season. Notre Dame’s pompous head coach Digger Phelps came to campus and disparaged all things USF and just generally acted like an absolute tool. The Dons shocked Digger and Irish 79-75. In the handshake line, normally mild-mannered USF head coach Jim Brovelli leaned in to Phelps and said “FU, Digger”. 
3. Dudes with the nickname “Digger” have very punchable personalities. 
4. Watching Bill Belichick’s North Carolina football team get trounced 48-14 was good for the soul. The Tar Heels scored first, but TCU then went on a 48-7 blitz, so…
5. On this Date… It took not one, but two nuclear bombs, but Japan formally surrendered in 1945. I often think of Harry Truman when I listen to someone bemoaning the tough decision they are facing.  

NOW LISTENING

The Beatles – Abbey Road (Full Album)

NO CONTEXT GIF

QUOTABLE
“A ton of athletes, even if they know your name, pretend they don’t.”
 – Jeff Pearlman, Author, Sportswriter