The biggest sports beefs of 2018

Ottawa senators teammates Mike Hoffman and Erik Karlsson did not feud so much as their partners did. Karlsson's wife, Melinda Karlsson accused Hoffman's fiancee, Monika Caryk, of cyberbullying her. Caryk denied the allegations, but Karlsson and the other Senators wives seem convinced that she was responsible for hundreds of anonymous messages attacking the Karlssons and even their unborn baby. The Senators responded by trading both of them, like parents sending their squabbling children to separate rooms.

Naomi Osaka's first US Open win should have been memorable on its own. But the defining battle of the match was not Osaka versus Serena Williams, but Serena versus chair umpire Carlos Ramos. Ramos assessed penalties to Williams for allegedly receiving coaching, then for racket abuse, and finally a game penalty for calling him a thief. It sparked a debate about sexism and double standards in officiating, and people missed how delightful Osaka herself is. We didn't "love" the feud, "fore" sure.

The Warriors were losing to the resurgent LA Clippers on November 12th, but closed the game on an 11-0 run. However, on the last play, Draymond Green grabbed a rebound from Kevin Durant, didn't pass to him, and subsequently turned the ball over. The resulting confrontation got very heated, with Draymond calling Durant a "b—" multiple times, and eventually yelling at him about the distraction of KD's impending free agency. The Warriors suspended Draymond for a game, Draymond hurt his toe, the team lost four games in a row, and then everything blew over and KD moved on to talking trash about LeBron James.

Manny Machado and the Boston Red Sox have a history of feuding, dating back to last season, when Oriole Machado spiked Dustin Pedroia and sparked a beanball war. But after new Dodger Machado spent the NLCS trying to injure various Brewers, he faced his old nemeses in the Fall Classic and proceeded to keep pissing them off. In Game 4, he spiked the heel of old teammate Steve Pearce, though he insisted he was simply tired. But what probably angered the Red Sox the most was his three RBIs in Game One. It's easier when they can just throw at him.

Sixers center Joel Embiid likes to scrap with all the centers in the NBA, but he especially likes to troll Andre Drummond of the Pistons, saying "I feel like I own a lot of real estate in his head." Embiid managed to get Drummond ejected from an OT Pistons victory in October, though afterward Drummond replied "That man is fat outta shape and talks all day." Fat or not, Embiid went for 39 points and 17 rebounds in the rematch a week later, which means the continuation of this feud is going to require Drummond to shoot a little better.

Panthers safety Eric Reid went unsigned for the first month of the NFL season, probably due to Reid's continued anthem protests (Reid filed a collusion grievance). Malcolm Jenkins of the eagles had also been protesting during the anthem, but stopped after his Players Coalition secured $90 million from the NFL to fund his organization. Reid confronted Jenkins on the field after the coin toss, and then called him a "sellout" after the game. This feud shows no signs of slowing down, especially since the NFL continues to collude against Colin Kaepernick. Mark Sanchez is starting for an NFL team, what other proof do you need?

The Colts and the Patriots have never liked each other, ever since the Manning-Brady battles of the previous decade. The feud came to a boiling point after the Colts reported on the Patriots under-inflated footballs during their matchups in 2014, leading to the Deflategate scandal, a year and a half of court cases, and a four-game suspension for Tom Brady. Things seemed to die down, with the teams even making on a trade, but the rivalry reignited when Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels agreed to take the Colts head coach job, then backed out. The Colts are still fuming, but this can't become a true feud until the Colts actually beat the Patriots once.

NFL Network analysts Steve Smith and Michael Irvin are both superstar wide receivers with shall we say healthy egos. So when Irvin said Anquan Boldin was the last receiver Joe Flacco could trust, Steve Smith, who played with Flacco after Boldin, was noticeably pissed. He shot back, "I got a Doctorate in route running... you got an Associates Degree playa… from a Community College.” At least things aren't quite as heated as last year, when Irvin made fun of Smith's pants, and Smith threatened to come to LA to "whoop his ass."

In one the dumber controversies in awards voting history, Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell campaigned against fellow rookie Ben Simmons for Rookie of the Year. Mitchell questioned Simmons' eligibility for the award, since he missed the 2016-17 season with injury but still got to work out and study with the team. Mitchell even wore a sweatshirt with the definition of "rookie" on it, an absolute non-collector's item from Adidas. Simmons won the award and did not wear a sweatshirt, and both players went out in five game in the second round of the playoffs. The feud seems to have died down, but if Zhaire Smith has a big year in 2018-19, look out.

The anthem controversies will never die down in the NFL as long as President Trump has access to his Twitter account. Though he's arguably been feuding with the NFL since his failed efforts with the USFL, Trump ramped things after taking office, calling protesting players "sons of b—s" and tweeting about how they should be fired. He also brought up the anthem in his State of the Union address. Though quiet over the summer, Trump brought it up again after the first weekend of the season, blaming the protests for bad ratings and concluding in inimitable Trump fashion, "Otherwise worse!"

America learned of the feud within the Rodgers family when lesser Rodgers brother Jordan was on The Bachelorette, warning her before hometowns that his now-fiancee JoJo Fletcher, "Me and Aaron don’t really have that much of a relationship. It’s just kind of the way he’s chosen to do life and I’ve chosen to stay close with my family and my parents and my brother." Aaron Rodgers didn't seem to like that being aired publicly, but Jordan got angry again this fall. The impetus? Aaron donated $1 million to fire victims. Jordan replied, "PLEASE DONATE, SPREAD AWARENESS & SEND LOVE. But when your Mom is home alone during the fires, car packed ready to evacuate, & you miss the fundamental first step of compassion; calling your parents to make sure they are safe…. Everything else just feels like an act.” The third Rodgers brother, Luke (yes, there's three of them) also jumped in to slam Aaron, which has to be even more frustrating than playing for Mike McCarthy.

The beef between Pro Bowl running back Le'Veon Bell and the Pittsburgh Steelers goes back to 2016, which is how long they've been at a contract impasse. They couldn't agree that summer, nor the summer of 2017, when the Steelers used the franchise tag on Bell to lock in a one-year, $12 million deal. Bell held out all summer before signing just before the season began. Then he threatened retirement, the Steelers tagged Bell again, and he held out again. All season long. There were signs this would get uglier when Bell's own teammates started ripping him. Bell continued holding out, the Steelers didn't trade him, and then the relationship ended in the most 2018 way possible: Bell removed "Pittsburgh Steelers" from his Twitter bio.

The other big player-versus-team beef in the NFL happened between All-Pro safety Earl Thomas and the Seattle Seahawks. Thomas was in the last year of his contract, and asked the team to give him a contract extension, or trade him to a different team who would. The danger in playing on a one-year deal is the lack of protection from injury. Thomas held out until the season started, and skipped practices all year to avoid injury - until Thomas broke his leg in a game against Arizona, and flipped off the Seahawks sideline as he was carted off the field.

Josh Norman of the Redskins is a shutdown corner, but his true talents lie in picking fights with wide receivers. In previous years, Norman has had beef with Odell Beckham Junior – they once combined for five personal fouls in a single game while matched up – and Dez Bryant, but this year his target was Saints wideout Michael Thomas. After the Saints and Thomas burned Norman and his defense, they did things like men and took the beef to Twitter. Norman called Thomas a "clout-chasing clown" while Thomas called Norman a "goofball con artist." It's really too bad these teams only play twice a year, because this beef could have legs.

In baseball, it's pretty common to see a batter charge the mound, or even a catcher go after a runner for a hard slide, or a batter for talking trash. But in April, we saw a catcher attack a manager, when Yadier Molina went after Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo. Lovullo had already been ejected from the game for arguing balls and strikes, but in the course of his tirade he called Molina a "m—f—." That's probably why Molina was neither ejected nor fined, despite the resulting bench-clearing brawl.

Somebody once told me the internet was going to roll me, but Browns pass rusher Myles Garrett might not be the sharpest tool in the shed. Because he didn't know that when you criticize a Bay Area sports team (besides the A's), you're asking to incur the online wrath of Smash Mouth. After Garrett dissed Kevin Durant (he's in the middle of beefs he's not even a part of!), Smash Mouth tweeted "Hey Myles Garrett,.....nobody knows who the F you are so nobody gives a F what you would do. And Genius the @warriors didn't win the Championship the season before KD signed. So not sure what "coattails" you're referring to. This your Twitter page Aaaaahole?" Garrett responded diplomatically, expressing his love for the Shrek soundtrack. He's got 11.5 sacks already, so we hope Smash Mouth will eventually be able to tweet, "Hey now, you're an All-Pro!"

The first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs turned into pure beef when Celtics guard Terry Rozier accidentally called Bucks point guard Eric Bledsoe "Drew," the name of the former Patriots quarterback and stage diving enthusiast. After Rozier dominated Game 2 of the series, Bledsoe said he "didn't know who the f—" Terry Rozier was, despite clearly seeing him score bucket after bucket. The two nearly fought during Game 5, Drew Bledsoe started attending games, and after the Celtics eliminated the Bucks in seven, Rozier wore a Bledsoe jersey to his first Sixers matchup. Things have cooled down, but Rozier is now beefing with a t-shirt company.

NBA players have been busted with burner accounts before, but 2018 was the first time a team executive got burned. Allegedly, the "Eric jr" account was one of many run by the wife of former Sixers GM Bryan Colangelo, and was full of critiques of star Joel Embiid, like "too bad that Embiid danced like a fool and the whole disaster happened, next time he will think twice before mocking his team." The account also made multiple references to getting a "medium-sized ladder" to kick Embiid's butt. Embiid responded with humor: "Joel told me that @samhinkie IS BETTER AND SMARTER THAN YOU @AlVic40117560 #BurnerAccount," but Sixers ownership was less amused, and Colangelo resigned. 

Charles Barkley has sparred with the Warriors for years, most famously with his insistence that a jump-shooting team can't win a championship. Multiple championships later, Barkley got annoyed watching Rajon Rondo and Draymond Green go at it, and said, "I want to punch him in the face so bad." Draymond shot back with a verbal nuke strike: "If you feel that strongly about it, then punch me in my face when you see me.If you’re not going to punch me in my face when you see me, then shut up... Punch me in the face when you see me, or if not no one cares what you would have done. You old and it is what is. So if you ain’t going to punch me when you see me, then stop talking about it. Period.” They made up later, sort of, and this is nothing new for Barkley, but "You old and it is what it is" is a truly incredibly retort.

Rajon Rondo has hated Chris Paul since CP3 beat him out for a spot on the 2008 Olympic team. They've verbally scuffled over the years, but things finally got physical when Paul's Rockets came to LA for the Lakers' home opener. It's proof of their dislike that the inciting incident didn't involve either player, but ended with them trading blows eye pokes, and, in Rondo's case, saliva. Making matters worse for Rondo, LeBron James comforted his best friend Chris rather than his teammate Rajon. Rondo will get him back, either in the playoffs or in a Connect Four match.

Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov don't like each other, but McGregor extended his beef to public transportation on April 5th. Khabib confronted one of McGregor's sparring partners at a hotel, and when McGregor heard about it, he and his entourage hopped a private plane from Ireland, and then attacked...a bus. Yes, Khabib was on board, but McGregor & Co. threw a number of objects at a bus full of fighters, including a large metal dolly. Khabib was unscathed, but some fighters were cut by broken glass, and the MMA event was cancelled. The poor bus is resting comfortably in a service yard.

When McGregor and Khabib finally fought, there were no vehicles involved. However, there was a giant brawl afterward, once Khabib forced a submission in the fourth round. Khabib leapt out of the Octagon to fight Dillon Danis, who is McGregor's ju-jitsu coach, and then two others jumped into the Octagon and started hitting McGregor. Three people were arrested, the event ended in chaos, and the inevitable rematch will be very, very lucrative.

It's not clear exactly when things went sour for Jimmy Butler and the Minnesota Timberwolves. After trading for Butler in 2017, the Wolves returned to the playoffs for the first time in over a decade, but Butler seemed critical of his "nonchalant" young teammates. Butler first demanded a trade, then tried to force the issue by showing up at practice to yell at his teammates, his coach, and the team executives. Then he did a conveniently-timed interview with ESPN. The Wolves finally had enough and dealt him to Philadelphia, where Butler has already hit multiple game-winners, and the Butler-free Wolves have also gone on a tear in his absence.

You wouldn't think that Las Vegas/All My Children star Josh Duhamel would make his way onto a list of sports beefs, but that's just what happens when you mention Draymond Green AND the national anthem publicly. Duhamel blamed Green for laughing during the unique performance by his ex, Fergie, and while in New York, the Warriors responded with what they called the Fergie Remix Challenge. Josh should have known from his Transformers experience that you can't win going up against a superteam.

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin didn't make any friends when he went on a Barstool Sports podcast and joked that "70%" of NASCAR drivers were taking Adderall. The remark didn't sit well with drivers, and when Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Junior edged out Hamlin for second place at the Daytona 500, he quipped, "He might need some Adderall for that one." The beef continued off the track as well, when Hamlin responded by kicking Wallace out of his basketball and golf leagues. Neither driver won a race in the 2018 season, so maybe both of them could try a non-chemical remedy, like meditation.

In perhaps the only official Feud of the 2018 sports season, NFL players went on Family Feud in a rookies vs. veterans matchup. Gerald McCoy held it down for the veterans, as befitting his feud-friendly last name, but Stefon Diggs of the Vikings had the most memorable/embarrassing answer, making Steve Harvey pause when he complete the phrase "Leave it ____" with "In." Digg swill presumably be vacationing on Lake Minnetonka this year.

Kelvin Benjamin has harsh words for his old quarterback, Cam Newton, after requesting a trade off the Panthers in 2017. He kept it up, saying "If you would’ve put me with any other quarterback, let’s be real, you know what I’m saying? Any other accurate quarterback like Rodgers or Eli Manning or Big Ben — anybody! — quarterbacks with knowledge, that know how to place a ball and give you a better chance to catch the ball." Newton tried to make nice with Benjamin before the Bills-Panthers preseason game, but Benjamin stayed mad. Now that the Bills have released Benjamin, it should be interesting to see what he has to say about Nathan Peterman.