The Most Harassed Athlete League Online Ranked

There are few things in the world that conjure up the same amount of passion, excitement and frustration as sports.

It’s one of the reasons so many of us love watching and playing them, and why large sports events, like the Super Bowl, Champions League Final or even WrestleMania are often the most attended and watched events in the world.

It’s also why star athletes can amass enormous online followings and become the most watched and talked about people on the planet.

But with fame, fortune and fans comes another side of the coin, with athletes frequently speaking out on the level of abuse they receive from fans online.

Using social listening and natural language tools CryptoManiaks Sports analyzed social media posts, comments and mentions across some of the world’s biggest sports leagues and stars to uncover the athletes who receive the most abuse from fans.

As the bigger the athlete, the more attention they get, for each sport we took a sample size, based on the social media following of the respective league and players, then analyzed this to work out what proportion of overall social media mentions we negative for each athlete.

Overall, we analyzed well over 4 million social media posts, from X, Facebook, Reddit and Instagram across leagues, with the top 15 from each sport available in our report covering Football, NBA, the NFL and WWE.

The NFL Players That Receive the Most Online Abuse

Data collection period from 30th August 2024 – 1st March 2025

Our study found that across the past season, Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was the most targeted NFL player when it comes to online harassment.

Of the posts analyzed, we found a staggering 27.3% of comments or mentions for Mahomes were negative or contained ‘hate’ language or negative sentiment.

Closely behind Mahomes was teammate and multi-time Super Bowl winner, Travis Kelce, with 26.3% of comments aimed at the Tight End registering as negative. While Kelce may also be targeted due to the Chiefs recent dominance and media profile, he was also frequently targeted by trolls due to his high-profile relationship with megastar Taylor Swift.

Overall, Quarterbacks were the position most likely to be targeted by online haters, taking 7 of the top 10 spots, likely due to the players often acting as the face of the team. However, nearly all the players in the top 15 played offensive positions (including kickers), with just one defensive player, CJ Gardner Johnson, making the list.

When it comes to harassment, a common theme across all sports was success breeds resentment, this was especially true in the NFL.

We found players from both of last season’s Conference Champions and Super Bowl teams, The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, were the most likely to be targeted by online trolls, with three-a-piece in the top 15. However, some inclusions could also be explained by some individual controversies, such as Harrison Butker’s infamous commencement speech, Saquon Barkley’s defection from the New York Giants to division rival Philadelphia Eagles, and CJ Gardner Johnson’s online feud with Taylor Swift’s ‘Swifties’ fanbase.

The Premier League and Football Players That Receive the Most Online Abuse

Data collection period from 1st August 2024 – 31st May 2025

According to our research, Marcus Rashford MBE was the Premier League player who receives the most online abuse from fans, with 26.3% of posts and comments about the player scoring as negative.

This unfortunately continues a history of long-standing targeted harassment towards the player, including racially driven attacks, which also saw a mural of the player defaced following England’s Euro 2020 campaign.

Along with playing for England, Manchester United and most recently, Aston Villa, Rashford is also known for his extensive charity and community work for causes including child poverty, school meals, and Universal Credit for which he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in October 2020.

Despite this, Rashford remined the most targeted Premier League player for online hate, which several of his Manchester United teammates including Harry Maguire (20.8%), Bruno Fernandes (18.7%), Andre Onana (18.7%) Rasmus Højlund (17.6%) and also featuring in the top 15.

Also featuring in the top 5 most targeted players were Liverpool’s Trent Alexander Arnold (22.4%) who faced a flurry of abuse from fans for moving to Spanish club Real Madrid at the end of the 24/25 season, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (21.3%), Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka (20.9%) and Man Utd’s Harry Maguire (20.8%).

Manchester based teams dominated the list, with 5 players from both Manchester United and Manchester City appearing in the top 15, more than any other team.

Data collection period from 1st August 2024 – 31st May 2025

While our study only looked at the Premier League as a whole, we did also analyze some of the world’s biggest football stars from around the world. For this we considered players in top ranked teams, or ones with extensive media profiles.

From our selection globally, Killian Mbappé was the most targeted player in the world, with the French superstar receiving more negative posts and comments than any other player (26.6%)

Behind Mbappé were fellow Real Madrid players Vinicius Jr (25.3%) and Trent Alexander Arnold (22.4%), with Cristiano Ronaldo (27.6%) and Romelu Lukaku (27.1%) rounding out the top 5.

Which WWE Stars Receive the Most Online Abuse?

Data collection period from 30st April 2024 – 30st April 2025

Of all the sports featured in our study, we found wrestlers faced the highest levels of online abuse from fans.

When it came to wrestlers, women were significantly more likely to be targeted than men, with the top 5 most targeted athletes all being female.

According to our study, WWE superstar Charlotte Flair not only faced more online harassment than any other wrestler, but also the most of any athlete in our study, with a staggering 36.4% negativity rating in our sample.

Flair was closely followed by fellow WWE superstar Nia Jax (35.3%), who has also been outspoken in the past regarding poor treatment from fans.

Rounding out the top 5 were AEW star Mercedes Mone (29.6%) and former AEW & WWE stars Saraya (29.3%) and Tegan Nox (28.6%) – all of which would have topped any other category in our study, highlighting the extreme levels of abuse and harassment female wrestlers face from fans.

Other highly targeted people included WWE’s CM Punk, Jade Cargill and former NXT star Cora Jade, along with rival wrestling company AEW stars Chris Jericho, and The Young Bucks.

While it’s important to consider some wrestlers who portray bad guys or ‘heels’ on screen may receive online harassment due to their TV character’s actions, several major WWE stars have publicly spoken about abusive or threatening behavior from fans both online and in person.

Which NBA Players Receive the Most Online Abuse?

Data collection period from 1st October 2024 – 31st May 2025

Notoriously known for having one of the biggest ‘hater’ communities, multiple NBA have called out poor treatment from fans online, with former player Brian ‘White Mamba’ Scalabrine even challenging trash talkers to one-on-one games.

Our study found Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durrant was the most trash talked and harassed player online, with 28.4% of mentions and comments containing negativity towards him.

The outspoken Power Forward, famously engages with his critics, claiming “haters are my fans who got lost along the way and started eating forbidden fruit, they need my guidance”.

Other players who received high levels of online harassment included all-time great LeBron James (26.3%), Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (25.2%), Russell Westbrook (24.7%), and Ben Simmons (23.9%).

Interestingly, unlike other leagues analyzed, the selection of players targeted by fans was spread widely across teams, with the top 10 most targeted NBA players comprising 10 different teams.

Ed Acteson from CryptoManiaks sports commented: “In sports tensions can run high, especially when it comes to big games, heated rivalries or when there’s money on the line.

“Unfortunately, our study found that online abuse has become a common reality for athletes across all sports and levels. Whether it’s footballers, basketball players, wrestlers, or others, the more visible and successful an athlete becomes, the more likely they are to attract negativity online, some of which can become deeply personal and threatening.

“Social media gives fans direct access to players, but unfortunately that access also opens the door to harassment and hate. While there have been several initiatives in recent years to attempt to curtail this, our study shows that no matter the sport or platform, athletes are often on the receiving end of extreme criticism and personal attacks.”

For more sports insight, including the detailed reviews on the best crypto powered sports books, visit our CryptoManiaks Sports section.

Methodology

Using sentiment analysis and natural language processing tools, CryptoManiaks studied over 4 million social media posts and comments from sites such as Instagram, X, Facebook, Tik Tok and Reddit for some of the biggest sports stars across their respective seasons to determine the proportion of negative comments each faced based on a sample size.

• NFL: Data collection period from 30th August 2024 – 1st March 2025. Players needed a minimum of 500,000 followers across platforms or be a starting QB for any NFL team.
• Premier League / Soccer: Data collection period from 1st August 2024 – 31st May 2025 to correlate to most major European seasons. Eligible athletes needed a minimum of 500,000 followers and to have played at least 90 minutes in the 24/25 season. Players outside the Premier League taken from a sample of 50 of the most followed football players, and highest rated players via the EAFC football game series.
• WWE: Data analyzed from 30th April 2024 – 28th June 2025 in line with WrestleMania ‘seasons’. Eligible athletes needed a minimum of 250,000 followers across platforms and needed to be signed to a WWE or AEW contract or have wrestled at least one match during the time period. For Nikki Bella, who was not under a WWE contract for the entire duration, the sample was collected from January 2025 – 28th June 2025, to correlate with her return to WWE. For this study celebrity-wrestlers such as Logan Paul, Bad Bunny or Travis Scott were excluded.
• NBA: Data collection period from 1st October 2024 – 31st May 2025. Players needed a minimum of 500,000 followers across platforms.

In all cases athletes with serious or outstanding criminal convictions or proceedings were excluded from the study.