Hate Watch / Rival alerts / NFL

NFL rival alerts

Football gives you a lot of small disasters to enjoy: the pick-six, the fumble at the goal line, the flag that takes a touchdown off the board. Hate Watch tells you about each one the moment it happens, for the NFL teams and players you track.

What you get alerts for

Most NFL alerts are about the quarterback, because that is where most of the drama is. You can get an alert when your target:

• Throws an interception, with a note when it is returned for a touchdown;
• Gets pulled in favor of the backup;
• Gets sacked or takes a delay of game;
• Loses a fumble, whether a skill player or the quarterback;
• Misses a kick;
• Has a touchdown wiped out by a penalty, which is the one that stings the most.

There are team alerts too: a drive that ends in a three-and-out, a turnover on downs, a trip inside the 20 that comes away with nothing, a safety, and the other side recovering an onside kick. A tracked player can also be ejected, and the app tells you when a game ends tied.

Which ones buzz your phone

Push notifications by default include the interception, the lost fumble, the benched quarterback, the missed kick, the wiped-out touchdown, the turnover on downs and the empty red-zone trip. Sacks, penalties, three-and-outs and ties go to your feed without a buzz, and incompletions and fumbles the offense recovers are off until you turn them on. Every one of these can be changed in Settings, for the whole league or for a single player.

When the game ends

When a team you track loses, you get the loss alert, with extra lines if they fit: they lost in overtime, they lost on a score with seconds left, they blew a 14-point lead, they were held scoreless, or they lost as a heavy favorite. An NFL team is also marked as swept when it loses both games against a division rival in the same season, since division rivals meet twice. The standings are watched too, so you hear when a rival clinches the division or your target is eliminated from the playoffs.

Picking a target

The obvious ones are the rivalries with real history: Cowboys and Eagles, Packers and Bears, Ravens and Steelers, Chiefs and Raiders. But a target can be anyone, including the division winner who always seems to get the calls, or the quarterback your fantasy league will not stop talking about. Search for a team or a player and tap Track.

For how the three alert settings work and what the loss alert adds, see how rival alerts work.

Free. No account. Push alerts need the iPhone or Android app.

Other leagues: NBA, MLB, WNBA, NHL, College football, Premier League, F1, UFC