Image via Complex Original
Ah, the comments section. For writers, it's the most feared part of any post—no writer enjoys seeing his work relentlessly shat on, or seeing his mistakes uncovered (although corrective tips from readers are certainly important). For readers, it's a place to anonymously praise or pick apart a post, but let's be honest: Many times, it's to say something negative. Constructive criticism is always appreciated around these parts, but far too often, commenters use the veil of anonymity to excuse their own hateful or flat-out ignorant comments. Complex Sports commenters aren't excluded from this, and neither are the commenters over at Bleacher Report, Pro Football Talk, and even Grantland. See whose got the worst of it in Ranking Which Sports Sites Have the Worst Commenters.
8. Grantland
Let's make one thing clear first: All in all, the commenters on Grantland look superb on the surface, as one would expect of a Grantland reader. They use correct spelling and grammar, and seeing comments over 150 words is common place—these guys are taking valuable time out of their day to give what they perceive to be more than a half-baked comment. That's no surprise though—Grantland exists as Bill Simmons' pet to produce prestige sports and pop culture journalism and blogging. It's hard not to go on Grantland and come across at least three must-read lunchtime articles. The writing is dope.
Problem is, many of the commenters think they can/want to write for Grantland. The site attracts a higher brow crowd—one that enjoys sitting down to read 3,000 word explanations of the Detroit Pistons' woes because the writing and analysis is just that good. But often times, the commenters aren't as smart as they think they are. Digging deeper, the many comments are basic, or just plain stupid.
7. ESPN FC
The whinning on here is genuinely pathetic at times. Whenever an ESPN FC writer pens a blog entry covering a match, fans of the losing side are always quick to howl and moan in tired, tasteless manners. The overreactions come swiftly and heavy handedly, and seemingly ignore whatever point the article was/is trying to make. Nothing's worse than a commenter who already formulated his/her opinion before clicking on the post and not even bothering to read the damn thing to see if, hey, maybe their thoughts aren't the end all be all of debate.
6. Bleacher Report
Things can get testy on Bleacher Report. The insults get personal, the cries get bitchy, and nobody knows when to throw in the towel. On social media, there's nothing worse than logging onto your news feed or timeline to see a 100 comment war between two people over some current event or political opinion—it's obnoxious and nobody looks cool. That's exactly what you'll see in Bleacher Report's comment sections
5. Pro Basketball Talk
These commenters live and die by the almighty "like" button. They're thirsty for upvotes, which should produce better comments, but alas, that's not always the case. Pro Basketball Talk commenters are also a largely bland and humorless bunch, swapping corny or lame jokes for likes to the detriment of real conversation. 1,000 Zzzzzzz to the above comment regarding Tracy McGrady's reportedly burgeoning baseball career.
4. Pro Football Talk
The worst Pro Football Talk commenters might as well be posting would-be Facebooks statuses as comments. Many readers of this site are super fans who'd prefer to assert their fandom than offer any useful feedback to a post or engage in a good discussion. Take the above examples, for instance. On a post about Pete Carroll's post-Super Bowl press conference, 49ers, Saints, and random Seahawks haters came out of the woodwork beat their chests and bang on about their own teams. PFT commenters: Stay on topic and stay a fan at heart, but please remove your useless bias.
3. Complex Sports
First off: If you're a Complex Sports reader who enjoys most of what you read around here, and also take the time out to offer critical feedback, constructive criticism, or a clever joke on a post, thank you. Reading comments like those makes our day, not only because it helps us do our jobs better, but because some Complex Sports commenters are ignorant, racist, lack reading comprehension skills, and don't have the ability to use language beyond elementary school level English.
The latter two drive us nuts, because so often negative comments are unnecessarily left because readers didn't bother to read the blurbs properly or they just call the post "dumb" without any further explanation. Commenting without reading is the worst thing ever. We strive to improve our work every day, so hopefully our content will engage you enough to leave well thought-out comments.
PS: We're an American website, so we're going to keep calling soccer "soccer." Get over it.
2. Breitbart Sports
Breitbart Sports attracts an interesting crowd: well-read sports readers, and well-read sports readers who are also internet racists, or at the very least, bigots. Thankfully, enough of their readers aren't total bigoted morons, and they do well to shoot down any and all offensive comments, but that doesn't erase them altogether. For further evidence, peep the reaction to Breitbart's post about last night's controversial-when-it-shouldn't-have-been Coke commercial.
1. ESPN
The Worldwide Leader in Sports is also one of the Worldwide Leaders in Worst Comments. It's no fault of ESPN's though—they're such a behemoth that for every awesome comment, there's bound to be a handful of terrible ones. From racists to remedial English students to people lacking morals, ESPN commenters are never short of variety and plain stupidity.
