Whether or not you consider NC State a rival, and for the record, I do not, they are still a conference foe and a team you never want to lose to, even if we do live more rent free in their heads than they do in ours. Regardless there is history there and with that history comes stories and heated discussions. For example, my senior year at Chapel Hill I really got into Women’s Gymnastics, I knew a couple of girls on the team and went to every home meet dressed in blue hair and yelling like a maniac.
One meet was at State and I went wearing my UNC shirt and the coach recognized me. He had me come down to the floor and start waving the American Flag around and some drunk State student took offense and we almost brawled at of all things a gymnastics meet. As I said, may not be a rival, but heated nonetheless.
As with any heated matchup there are players both teams have come to strongly dislike and just as we did before the Duke game, I want to pose the same question this morning.
Who is your least likable State player (any sport since you know in basketball they aren’t usually all that good)?
For me there is no one else than Philip Rivers. Rivers and I went to school at the same time, we both entered college in 2000 and we both graduated in 2004, him for the NFL and myself to Texas. I have never had such dislike for any other player as much as Rivers. The fact that he went 3-1 against us while he was there only made it worst. The only good thing was that he and State always came up short especially when the expectation were high. I hated that he was a first round pick and I enjoyed watching him come up short in the pros (I normally don’t care about players once they make the pros, unless they play for a rival team there, Rivers was an exception), never making the Super Bowl (the only of the three top 15 quarterbacks from that class who failed to go to one). Even when he came back this past season, nothing made me happier than watching him fail to win a single game. I also love that his hall of fame clock got restarted and he will have to wait longer to maybe make the Hall of Fame (you should already know my stance on that one).
So who is your least likable State player? Is it in basketball? Or is there another guy who really irks your soul because of something he or she did in that ugly red jersey? Let us know in the comments below.
