Three months ago, a poll of the public found that Michael Vick was the most disliked player in the NFL. The latest poll from the same outfit finds that Vick’s unpopularity extends beyond football, and he’s actually the most disliked athlete in all of America.
According to the latest surveys conducted by Nielsen and partner E-Poll Market Research, published by Forbes, Vick is the most disliked athlete in all of sports, just edging out Tiger Woods. The polling shows that Vick is one of the most famous athletes in America, and that while many NFL fans like him, the people who know who Vick is but don’t consider themselves NFL fans despise him.
“His awareness is up there with Peyton Manning, but a lot of it is people knowing him for the wrong reasons,” says Stephen Master, V.P. of Sports for Nielsen.
After Vick and Woods, the next athlete on the list of the most disliked is Jets receiver Plaxico Burress, who was also second to Vick on the poll three months ago of the most disliked NFL players. Shooting himself in the leg didn’t win Burress any fans.
Where the latest poll shows a major shift from the previous poll is that Ndamukong Suh now registers as No. 4 on the list of the most disliked athletes. In the previous round of polling, conducted a few weeks before Suh’s infamous Thanksgiving stomp, Suh did not register among the most disliked NFL players.
NBA players Kris Humphries, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant follow Suh on the list of the most disliked athletes, and then the next most disliked athlete is Terrell Owens. That “honor” for Owens is impressive because he’s the only athlete on the list who wasn’t active in 2011: Even though he hasn’t played an NFL game in more than a year, a whole lot of people still hold on to negative feelings for T.O.
