Tom Terrific and the Top 10 Athletes Who Deserve To Be Upset

Disclaimer: This is not athletes who are actually mad, just ones who have every right to be upset. with the media, their team, the fans, or their fellow athletes.

Athletes make a lot more money than you or I, but some of these guys have done so much and received so little credit. Some of these players don't get the respect they truly deserve in spite of their accomplishments.

Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo

These two athletes worked hard in college to excel in their respective sports. Reggie Bush deserved his Heisman trophy because of his talents. They probably would have achieved the same level of success at another institution, so they should not be punished. Just because USC cheated to get OJ and Bush doesn't mean their names should be discredited, they were trying to help out their impoverished families. Only USC should be punished.

Just kidding. These two broke the rules that apply to every other NCAA athlete and they deserve the disrespect that comes with being caught for cheating.

Honorable Mention - Terrell Ownes

He is only on this list because he thinks he is still amazing. However, he demands too much money for what he comes with, thus he doesn't truly deserve to be upset. He is a deep threat and an upgrade at reciever, but he does have a lot of drops and is not worth $2-3 followed by a handful of zeros.

10. Lou Piniella

Though he's no longer an athlete, he should be frustrated with the teams he's managed over the past eight years. He turned the Devil Rays from the worst team in the American League East into a 70 game winner. But all the other years he had no success with the laughing stock of major league baseball.

Now with the Cubs he turned the team around from worst to one of the best in 2007, but in 2007 they were swept in the playoffs and in 2008 when they compiled the best record in baseball they were again swept because of a lack of hitting and miscues. In 2009 the Cubs missed the playoffs and in 2010 they look certain to miss once again. Lou Piniella is a terrific manager, but he has been the skipper of horrible teams that seem to be a blackhole of the majors.

9. NFL Veteran Players

With a lockout looming for the 2011 NFL season all veteran players should be frustrated. The older players are going to loose a year of stats. Players like Peyton Manning could loose a chance to catch up on passing yards, touchdowns, and consecutive games started especially if the NFL brings in players from the CFL, AFL, etc. to break up the strike. This would be one more year for older running backs to run out of juice. Even young players could forget their fundamentals or stuff they were picking up like techniques at the end of the previous season. It would be a momentum killer. A veteran may lose chemistry with his younger players.

Veteran players must lobby to get NFLPA talks moving so that they can play the 2011 season in full. If there is a lockout this would get Favre out of the NFL for sure. The veteran players should be upset, it is one less chance for Tom Brady to have a shot at upstaging Peyton Manning.

8. Elizabeth Lambert

Remember the controversy of this New Mexico soccer player who was suspended for being too aggressive in soccer for pulling other girls hair and punching the other team. Well I'd be upset if I were her too. This is because soccer is simply way too passive, most of the players if they are barely grazed will flop onto the ground and clutch their leg screaming like they had just survived an atom bomb but lost half of their skin. Soccer players are such sissies and I give this woman props for trying to make soccer into a real sport where the strongest and toughest come out on top. She was just trying to play her best and not allow the other team to win. That is true commitment to the sport and her passion for the game should be admired by all sports fans.

7. Steven Jackson

Steven Jackson is one of the best running backs in the league, but he is on one of the worst teams. He has never been on a winning team and has only won one playoff game. Jackson is on a team that is in the rebuilding faze and will be for a few more years as they continue their youth movement. Jackson will need to be patient as he likely won't achieve any real success as long as he remains a Ram. He has had the weight of this poor offensive team on his shoulders since the 2005 season, it's just too much for one player to endure year in and year out.

Jackson isn't higher on this list because he has not achieved playoff success at the professional level, though that is also why he should be upset since it is not through any fault of his own.

6. Rory McIlroy

McIlroy shot for a course tying record of 63 on the first day of the Open and the lowest score for the first day of an open. The next day he followed up with an 80 shot performance because of the poor weather conditions and then the next two days he dropped down to the high sixties, respectable scores. But McIlroy should be upset that he went from a huge 1st place lead to 3rd place all because of one bad day cause by gusty winds.

5. Dustin Byfuglien (and Other Key Components of the 2010 Blackhawks)

Shortly after the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup they traded away many key aspects of their championship team; including fan favorite, Dustin Byfuglien. Hockey players should in general be upset that they don't recieve the respect they deserve in the United States. Fans don't give hockey much of a try. It is actually a very faced paced and physical sport that is fun to watch, especially up close and in person. So already he doesn't have the respect of almost any other athlete, but the team he just helped win a championship doesn't respect him or his teammates enough to keep them around. It makes these players seem replaceable, like they weren't an important part of winning. It is really a slap in the face to Byfuglien because it makes him look like he was a fan favorite, and that's it. Like he really wasn't good anymore and the fans of Chicago merely liked him for past services rendered.

4. John Isner

After playing the longest tennis match ever, for 11 hours and 5 minutes, John Isner came out victorious. Then in the next round Isner was so tired that he was promptly defeated. Medical professionals said that both Isner and Mahut risked dehydration, hyperthermia, kidney problems, and some sort of recurring problem over the following 6 months like tendonitis, knee problems, and shoulder pains. Also, the doctor said that they might have trouble getting into a groove due to psychological issues.

3. Kevin Durant

Look at this picture of Kevin Durant. It signifies that he is rising but LeBron James is above him and in the way even though he shouldn't be. This is simply because Durant was a better player than LeBron in 2010. He did more for his team and had better stats, yet LeBron recieved all the spotlights, the fame, the glory, the hour segments about his free-agency decision, and the MVP.

Now neither player has accomplished a measurable amount of success in the NBA outside of stats, but Kevin Durant's Thunder weren't even supposed to make the playoffs, let alone take the first-seeded Lakers to a game six in the first round of the playoffs and only losing that game by a single point. At the same time LeBron James is supposed to go to the Finals year in and year out, yet he has only made it once and lost all four games. This in itself shows that Kevin Durant goes above and beyond expectations in the pressure situations while LeBron just flops.

This season Durant led the Thunder on a 27 game turnaround from the previous year's record of 23-59 to 50-32. Durant led the NBA in scoring with 30.1 ppg above James' 29.7. Despite all of this and how much Durant meant to his team last season, he received second in the MVP ballot to LeBron. Durant led his team on an improbable turnaround and played better than LeBron, yet he was not given the recognition he truly deserved. Durant isn't known outside the NBA circle, unlike players like LeBron or Kobe, yet he should be because of his elite talent.

2. Tom Brady

Tom Brady has done nothing but be a fierce competitor, a fiery leader, and a winner for the New England Patriots. The future hall of famer has taken New England from a losing organization to a perennial contender, a 3 time champion, and four time AFC Champion. He has done so after being considered a nobody, replacing longtime Patriots favorite Drew Bledsoe to win Super Bowl XXXVI against heavy favorites the St. Louis Rams. He has been known as the quarterback to always have a chance in the fourth quarter of big games. He has complied a playoff record of 14-3.

The two time Super Bowl MVP won Super Bowls without great receivers around him, or at least Deion Branch wasn't the caliber of Randy Moss and Wes Welker. Now all he asks for is that the Patriots keep the talent he has like Randy Moss so that they can return to the 2007 record setting 50 touchdown form. However, Brady should be mad that the team doesn't try to make his job easier when he has put so much forward to becoming one of the most successful quarterbacks in league history.

Brady doesn't express his anger with the team because he wants to set a good example for the young players and because he sincerely respects Coach Bill Bellick. Brady is also upset that the younger players don't give much respect to Bill Bellick and do not work had in practice. Right now the media tries to make Brady appear super upset, but he isn't, at least not publicly. He is upset that the Patriots haven't shown their greatest quarterback a little bit of faith and won't give him any job security, and that is completely understandable. He doesn't want to get injured and have nowhere to go, he wants to have the organization he has done so much for show him just a little love. Tom Brady should not be thrown out like an old diaper, like other veteran Patriots have been like Mike Vrabel who was tossed in as a gift to the Kansas Chiefs with Matt Cassel, and Junior Seau who was given one year contracts four times despite what he meant to the team. Tom Brady doesn't merely want to receive the franchise tag, he wants to be a Patriot, but one for many years to come. It is insulting not to even offer a multi-year deal to someone who has done so much for the Patriots and who still can.

1. Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant should be the big thing this summer. He just won his 5th championship. Yet this has been The Summer of LeBron. It's like Kobe doesn't even exist. He just had a terrific accomplishment and everyone seems to have forgotten because some guy who has been a flop in the playoffs decided he wanted to keep America on their toes. LeBron was the talk of the NBA community during Kobe's championship run. It only stopped during game 7 of the Finals and picked right back up less than a day after Kobe's Lakers became champions. Kobe should be fumed.