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A recent study of social media sentiment has found that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is the most “hated” player in the league. Conversely, Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen ranked as the “most loved.”
The data was compiled by analyzing Reddit comments mentioning each player by full name, then classifying the sentiment into one of three categories: positive, neutral, and negative.
The study, which was conducted by gambling news website Vegas Insider, then ranked players by how consistently they’re praised, with an added boost for “discussion volume.’
An analysis of Reddit comments has found that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is the most “hated player in the NFL
Jalen Hurts had a “hate score” of 10.0 9 [(Negative Mentions / Total Mentions) × log(Total Mentions)], and ranked #1 on the hate rankings and #70 on the love rankings, with the Super Bowl-winning quarterback “leading the NFL in criticism while still drawing meaningful positive discussion.”
“The result is a league-wide ranking of the NFL’s most loved and most hated players. Love and hate are measured separately, so the same player can rank highly in both. Players are ranked from No. 1 downward by Love Score and Hate Score. Scores are normalized on a 0–10 scale for readability, where 10.0 represents the strongest positive or negative fan reaction in the dataset.” [via Vegas Insider]
Why is Jalen Hurts the most-hated player in the National Football League?
There are numerous factors in explaining why Hurts is so disliked. The first is that he’s successful, which always breeds contempt. And I’m not a homer Eagles fan saying this; I’m a Jets fan who has spent decades hating Tom Brady for that very reason.
The second is likely his penchant for speaking in apparent fortune cookie phrases, which has become a fixture of his press conferences since he became one of the faces of the league. There’s also the Tush Push to account for, while Hurts is central in and NFL fans are tired of seeing.
Perhaps most crucially, though, is the fact that there are a large number of NFL fans who don’t think that Hurts is the elite quarterback that his resume would suggest, particularly as it relates to the quarterback’s primary job: throwing the ball.