Fifteen villains in Wisconsin sports history

Brewers fans spent the weekend booing Padres infielder Manny Machado, a grudge that dates back to his days with the Dodgers team that met Milwaukee in the 2018 playoffs.

Machado's seemingly purposeful maneuver to spike first baseman Jesús Aguilar led to a minor benches-clearing incident in Game 4 of that series, a game the Dodgers won in the 13th inning.

There are plenty of reasons an athlete might get the villain label, and this won't count as a comprehensive list. But these are some of the names that ignite acrimony among Wisconsin sports fans.

The native Chicagoan bought the Milwaukee Braves franchise in 1962 and, as chairman and principal owner, acted on his wish to move the franchise to a more lucrative situation in Atlanta by 1965. The departure of the Braves left a gaping wound among Milwaukee sports fans, one that lingered long after the Milwaukee Brewers arrived for the 1970 season.

Strangely enough, Bud Selig — who pursued legal action to reverse the maneuver before himself bringing the Brewers to town — became friends with Bartholomay years later.

The Hall of Fame Bears linebacker played from 1965-73 and made life miserable for the Packers over eight Pro Bowl seasons (though not too miserable, since the Packers were 14-4 vs. the Bears during Butkus's tenure).

The rivalry feelings haven't abated in the years since. Butkus hasn't been shy about trolling the Packers, even with nephew Luke Butkus on the coaching staff.

Butkus is one of the greatest players in NFL history to never appear in a playoff game.

The Hall of Famer charged the mound and Brewers pitcher Mike Caldwell, setting off an unforgettable brawl in 1979 and highlighting the Brewers-Yankees rivalry of the era.

He also hit a key two-run homer in Game 5 of the ALDS in 1981, helping the Yankees get past the Brewers and reach the ALCS in an unusual format for the strike-shortened season. Jackson hit two homers in that series, but he was much quieter in 1982 as a member of the California Angels in the ALCS. He did homer once, but he was also memorably thrown out at third by Charlie Moore in Game 5.

Jackson's 229 hits against Milwaukee are the second most all time (behind George Brett's 231), and his 159 RBIs and 62 home runs are by far the most against the Brewers. He posted a .939 OPS over 810 at-bats.

Perhaps he serves as a stand-in for the 1980s Boston Celtics in general, given that they eliminated the Bucks from the playoffs three times. In 1987, McHale turned around and grabbed a Milwaukee fan by the necktie late in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, a ruckus that only served as part of a wild series eventually won by Boston. It's the same series where Sidney Moncrief tackled Danny Ainge.

McHale had plenty of success against Milwaukee but is just outside the top 10 in career scorers against the franchise. Still, McHale is from Minnesota, after all, which isn't the most beloved bit of geography when it comes to Wisconsin sports. So put him on the list.

Sheffield debuted with the Brewers as a 19-year-old in 1988, but the hotshot prospect clashed with members of the organization and openly expressed his dissatisfaction and a desire to go elsewhere. He alleged racial bias in the clubhouse and felt teammates didn't have his back, later calling his time in the city "Hell." He had run-ins later in his career, too, but in retrospect, the Sheffield saga can be categorized as complicated.

As soon as he was traded to San Diego before the 1992 season, he emerged as one of the league's most dangerous hitters and wound up making nine all-star rosters, leaving Brewers fans wondering what could have been.

In his final year of the big leagues, playing with the Mets in 2009, Brewers fans were still booing Sheffield when he stepped to the plate.

Is he still regarded as a surefire Hall of Famer if he doesn't do that helicopter-spinny thing to reach the end zone and help the Broncos shock the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII? The Packers were heavily favored to win a second straight Super Bowl on Jan. 25, 1998, but Terrell Davis ran for 157 yards, and it was the Broncos who raised the Lombardi Trophy (and the next one, claiming their own back-to-back triumph instead).

Former Wisconsin Badgers head coach Stu Jackson was NBA vice president in 2001 when he famously re-evaluated a Scott Williams foul as a Flagrant II, triggering a suspension for the Bucks power forward in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Bucks, who had taken Philadelphia to the brink in that series, could ill afford the loss. It was one of several circumstances in the series that, to this day, leave Bucks fans feeling like a "conspiracy" was afoot to keep Milwaukee out of the NBA Finals.

Philly won Game 7, and the Bucks wouldn't win another playoff series for nearly two decades.

The chatty Hall of Fame lineman put a devastating blindside hit on offensive lineman Chad Clifton in 2002, leaving Clifton with serious injuries, and that played into a heated exchange with Packers coach Mike Sherman.

Over the years, Sapp and Favre had numerous tête-a-têtes, some friendlier than others, and his 10 tackles for loss against Green Bay were the most against any opponent. The two ultimately struck up a friendship. Former Packers assistant once said: "I'm sure their two busts in Canton will be jawing back and forth every night for eternity."

He caught more touchdowns and racked up more receiving yards against the Packers than any other opponent, though Moss's teams only went 7-8 against Green Bay. But one that hurt came in the 2004 wild-card game, when Moss used a touchdown celebration as an opportunity to faux "moon" the Packers fans situated in the end zone.

Minnesota won the game, 31-17, with Moss catching two scores.

It doesn't get more complicated than this, considering Favre is unquestionably one of the greatest players in franchise history and had, for a time, mended fences with the Packers fan base. But his divorce from the organization in 2008 was messy, leading to a trade to the New York Jets.

His decision one year later to join the hated Minnesota Vikings, where he fell one game short of the Super Bowl in 2009 but beat the Packers twice, tested some fans' loyalties and generated serious acrimony for others.

Green Bay exacted a measure of vengeance, winning twice in 2010 against Favre and winning the Super Bowl that season. After the wounds started to heal, Favre could have remained in the franchise's good graces forever, but a high-profile scandal involving misappropriated welfare money in Mississippi isn't going to help.

He accused the Brewers of cheating in 2011 by using the stadium video ribbon boards to their advantage. That same season, he referred to Brewers fans as idiots after the Cardinals hit Ryan Braun intentionally with a pitch shortly after Albert Pujols had been struck with an inside pitch, seemingly without intent.

LaRussa said the two incidents didn't compare and Pujols was in much worse danger based on the pitch being so close to Pujols's hand. LaRussa later admitted in a book that the Braun hit was on purpose, and he stood by the decision.

Adding insult to injury, his Cardinals defeated the Brewers that season in an NLCS upset.

The Lions defensive tackle already had a reputation as a nasty player when he stomped on Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith on Thanksgiving in 2011, a move that Suh apologized for, though it became one of his defining moments. Suh was hit with a two-game suspension, and it was the fifth time he'd been disciplined for on-field conduct.

But that's not where Suh's antics stopped. He also stomped on Aaron Rodgers in 2014, drawing a fine, but his one-game suspension was reduced on appeal.

Suh was part of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that defeated the Packers in the NFC Championship Game in 2020.

Two of the most frustrating moments in modern Packers history took place against the Seattle Seahawks, and the smiling face of head coach Pete Carroll was one of the constants. And we can't blame ex-UW hero Russell Wilson, can we?

First came the "Fail Mary" in 2012, when confused replacement referees ruled that Seattle won the game on a last-second touchdown, 14-12, in an infamous moment that triggered the end of the referee labor stoppage.

Then came the NFC Championship Game after the 2014 season, when a series of unbelievable circumstances cost the Packers a chance to advance to the Super Bowl in a gut-punching 28-22 overtime loss.

It's easy to villainize one of the greatest coaches in college basketball history. Besides, Grayson Allen plays for the Bucks now, so we have to fixate elsewhere.

In the 2015 national-championship game, Coach K made sure to give the referees an earful, and when the calls didn't go Wisconsin's way down the stretch against Duke, that felt like it mattered. Though, not even Coach K's powers extend to the mis-identified replay on Justise Winslow's out-of-bounds ball, right?

Anyway, he's got five titles; would it have killed him to cede one to the Badgers in the year their stars aligned and they reached the championship game for the first time since 1941?

His numbers against the Brewers aren't eye-popping in the regular season, but he was ruinous in the postseason. He went 12 for 22 as a member of the Cardinals in the NLCS in 2011, with three doubles, three homers and nine RBIs as St. Louis defeated Milwaukee, four games to two. He was named the series MVP.

Wouldn't you know it, he was back in 2018 with the Dodgers, homering to lead off the game and later doubling in Game 6 of that series with the Brewers (though Milwaukee won that game).

The Canadian rapper became a distracting sideline presence during the 2019 Eastern Conference Finals against Toronto, which perhaps wouldn't have been so annoying if the Bucks hadn't lost the series, 4-2.

Drake was given an unusual freedom to roam the sideline at games in Toronto, including giving Raptors coach Nick Nurse a brief mid-game shoulder rub. It was weird.