Which New York/New Jersey Team Do You Hate The Most?

With nine local teams, there's no area in the country quite like the New York/New Jersey region. Let's face it, we all hate each other. Fans in New England are in universal support of their fellow citizens, with one team to root for in each sport. Chicago has two baseball teams but one in each of the other three sports, so it's not close to what we have here. The Los Angeles/Anaheim situation may resemble New York in some ways, but they're two separate cities with their own teams and, besides, they don't even have one football team let alone two.

But things are unique around here. You can pal around all summer with your buddy from work, living and dying with the New York Yankees, commiserating with every loss and joyfully reliving the previous night's win, but come fall you two may be sworn enemies, with one a New York Giants fan and the other loyal to the New York Jets. The same guy who is questioning your IQ for stating that the New Jersey Nets will be better than the New York Knicks may be empathizing with you two months later about your shared obsession with your beloved, snakebitten New York Mets. New York Rangers fans hate the New York Islanders. Islanders fans hate the New Jersey Devils. Devils fans hate the Rangers. And around and around it goes. With nine teams, there are numerous dynamics and combinations that make it hard to keep up with which of your acquaintances roots for which team. We're schizophrenics, with the area being a mini model of the world, with conflagrations flaring up on every street corner.

Of course we love who we love, but each local team is easy to hate in its own way, and we can find fault with each one at the drop of a hat. The Yankees are pure evil, with their outlandishly big spending ways ruining baseball. They're arrogant, their fans are arrogant, they have the arrogant, narcissistic Alex Rodriguez and even their "the season's a failure if we don't win the World Series" mantra is arrogant. The Evil Empire indeed. The Mets are a laughingstock. Their owners are a failure, the team is a failure, their history is filled with failure and when they spend money it's a failure. It's an organization that just can't get out of its own way. Even when they win, such as in 1986, they were doubly hated. Who didn't want to wipe the smirk off all those mustaches 25 years ago?

The Jets? That's easy: Rex Ryan. Empty guarantees. Swagger. Mark Gastineau's sack dance. The New York Giants stand on a pedestal and flaunt their holier-than-thou, big-brother history. And Eli Manning's a Manning, after all. The Devils killed the NHL with their exciting-as-watching-paint-dry defensive system. The Rangers made a mockery of the league with their out-of-control spending, plus they have Glen Sather and James Dolan. The Islanders? Potvin Sucks, and they're stuck out in suburban mullet country. The Knicks and James Dolan spend like an out-of-control, drunk, revenge-filled Real Housewife, play in the self-proclaimed center of the basketball universe yet never win anything, hired Isiah Thomas and Stephon Marbury and fired Marv Albert (though many of those are reasons why Knick fans may hate their own team). And the Nets? Who even cares about the Nets?

All those negative traits just scratch the surface of each team (and of course do not express my true sentiments but are for demonstration purposes only). Now it's your turn. Everyone has their favorite local team to root for, but which local team do you hate the most?