America Loves Countdowns

Countdown #14: Most Reviled Pittsburgh Sports Figures

There have been plenty of opposing sports figures who Pittsburgh sports fans have loved to hate over the years, but there have also been plenty of people from the home team who have received their fair share of animosity. This week the America Loves Countdown® series lists the sports figures who were reviled most by fans while donning a Pittsburgh uniform.

Roger Marino
Howard Baldwin took over as owner of a championship hockey team and proceeded to drive its finances straight into the ground. But the reason Marino makes this list over Baldwin is because when Marino was brought in as co-owner of the Penguins in 1997, his Boston millions were supposed to fix everything. Instead Marino made things much worse, refusing to pay Mario Lemieux and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Pens have been on shaky ground ever since, and now thanks to Baldwin/Marino's mistakes and our despicable politicians, they may not even be around for very much longer.

Bob Kipper
You know you are not very loved by the fans when they nickname you "Round-Tripper Kipper" and it's not because you hit a lot of homeruns! Kipper was a relief pitcher for the Pirates in the late 1980's and had a bad habit of giving up long balls. This was also back in the days when you could easily taunt the bullpen guys from the first level of seats at Three Rivers Stadium, which did not make life any more pleasant for Kipper.

Tim Worley
The 1989 NFL Draft was one for the ages. Four of the first five picks were future Hall of Famers. The Steelers had the 7th pick in that draft, their highest since the pre-70's days. They chose to select a running back out of Georgia named Tim Worley, and boy was he a bust! This pick came at the end of a long streak of bad drafts in the 1980's, so in his defense, "Woops" Worley (nicknamed that because of his annoying tendency to fumble on almost every play) probably bore the brunt of the collective fan anger over the multiple bad drafts. However, Woops didn't help matters when he got suspended for substance abuse in 1991 and then fumbled the ball away on his first play following the suspension (at home no less).

Terry Bradshaw
You wouldn't think that a legendary QB who won four Super Bowls would be reviled by his home fans, but that is exactly what happened to Bradshaw. In the early part of his career, his tendency to make dumb mistakes got him literally booed off the field. After his retirement, Bradshaw held bitter feelings towards the organization and city, and he subsequently stayed away for about two decades. Even after he made nice with the Steelers fans in 2002 (receiving a warm welcome during a Monday night game in which he was honored), Bradshaw didn't do himself any favors by being one of only three surviving Super Bowl MVP's to not attend Super Bowl XL, where his former team was playing.

Carl Krauser
Pittsburgh has never liked me-first athletes, and Carl Krauser's game was all about Carl Krauser. Captain No-Pass definitely had some talent, but during his junior and senior seasons, Pitt only won one NCAA Tournament game with him "leading" the way. The team-first legacy set forth by Ben Howland a few years earlier collapsed when Krauser became the feature player. I'll always remember that face he used to always make - it's the same face a little kid gets when he is about to start crying.

Dave Parker
Did you ever see the film Boogie Nights where the main character's charmed life goes straight into the toilet as soon as the 1970's come to a close? That is exactly what happened to Dave Parker. The Cobra enjoyed great success during the 70's. He won two batting titles, an NL MVP, and a World Series championship with the Pirates. But as soon as the 80's hit, he got fat and started using cocaine like it was going out of style, and the fans understandably turned on him. Things came to a head when fans at Three Rivers Stadium started throwing batteries at Parker while he played right field!

Dewayne Washington
The Steelers play a message on the scoreboard twice during games to remind fans not to pick fights with each other or throw stuff onto the field or act like drunken morons (FYI - it doesn't work). During the first few years at Heinz Field, the Steelers made the unfortunate decision to use Dewayne Washington as the messenger for this announcement. It was a disaster. The announcement usually played during a TV timeout, so sometimes it occurred right after Dewayne had gotten smoked for a touchdown. Nothing enraged the crowd more than seeing the guy who just cost the team yet another touchdown to come on the screen and lecture them via a pre-recorded message. The bitter reaction to an otherwise dull scoreboard message proved how reviled poor Dewayne was here.

Kordell Stewart
No one had quite the slide from glory that Kordell had during his career with the Steelers. As a rookie, he was touted as the best pure athlete to hit the NFL in ages. By the end, he was getting booed off the field and being forced to address ugly rumors about his sexuality. While Stewart brought much of this on himself, I've always felt like the fans were generally too rough on him. Booing a guy is one thing. Making up stories about him getting arrested in Schenley Park is going too far.

Barry Bonds
Remember when everyone loved Barry Bonds? You probably remember just about as much as you remember him being skinny. Barry alienated Pirates fans with his egotistical nature and short temper. He treated just about everyone - media, fans, his manager, his teammates - with the utmost contempt. Then when the Pirates needed him most (during the 1990, 1991, and 1992 NLCS), he was nowhere to be found. And this was all before we found out that he was a steroid-injecting cheater!

Tom Barrasso
Like Bonds, Tom Barrasso treated everyone around him like dirt. But there are two things that distinguish him from Barry: (1) Barrasso was especially hard on teammates. He berated young goaltenders like Patrick Lalime simply because he could. (2) During the second half of the 1990's, Barrasso barely ever played, opting to sit out games whenever he had any kind of minor injury excuse. When it came time to pull the trigger on a March 2000 trade that sent Barrasso to Ottawa for Ron Tugnutt (a goalie who nearly carried the Pens to the conference finals that season), GM Craig Patrick admitted that he was "afraid" to call Barrasso to tell him about it! That says all you need to know about this bully and why he was the most reviled figure in Pittsburgh sports history.

Honorable Mentions:

• Derek Bell
• Ray Sherman
• Stan Belinda
• Jaromir Jagr