Best rivalry in the NFL?

[dfb547490]

Despite not caring about either team, my vote is for Browns-Steelers.

[Ian McCracken]

I agree, I voted Browns-Steelers. The proximity of the cities plays a large factor as does the strong hold football has in eastern Ohio / western Pennsylvania. Another big one not on your list is Bears-Packers.

[Lucid]

I dunno about the Browns/Steelers being #1. I think a lot was lost when there was no Browns for a few years. So much of a rivalry is passed down from player to player over the years, and when the Browns were yanked out of Cleveland and put back, the Brown players had no rivalry with Pittsburgh. It will slowly come back and playoff meetings between them only accelerate that. So it's a good one, but not the best. That is just my opinion and that's how I look at that rivalry in the grand scheme of things.

As a Chiefs fan, I've always looked at the Broncos and the Raiders as the Chiefs' biggest rivals, but I once heard an interview with a Chiefs player a few years ago and he was talking about how the Chargers are the biggest rival for the players. Kinda makes you look at it from the players' perspective because we're so used to looking at it solely on the fans' perspective.

The recent realignment has really sparked new rivalries and flared up old ones even more. Since my team is in the AFC West, I'll use it as a pretty good example of a division where every has a pretty big rivalry with every other team. Everyone hates the Raiders, the Chiefs and Broncos have always had a big rivalry, so I guess that leaves the Broncos and Chargers as the worst of the bunch, but I still really enjoy that matchup. Other divisions like the AFC East, NFC East, NFC North, and the NFC West share big rivalries all around. However, the NFC South is the conference I'm most excited about over the next 10 years. This new division is chalk-full of exciting up and coming players and teams. Think about the coming years of Vick vs. the TB Defense. Vick versus the Carolina defense? How about Vick versus Brooks in what I think will be the best matchup over the next 5 years, Atlanta and New Orleans.

Not as a Chiefs fan, but as a general NFL fan, here are the matchups I'd most like to see.
- Atlanta versus New Orleans (Vick vs Cuz')
- Atlanta versus Tampa Bay (Vick vs TB D)
- Kansas City versus St Louis (Vermel + offense)
- Kansas City versus Indy (Offensive explosion)
- Indy versus Tennessee (Budding rivalry)
- Carolina versus Tampa Bay (Budding Rivalry + great D)

The rivalry I voted for was Cowboys/Redskins, based solely off of tradition, but it's a matchup that puts me to sleep right now.

[CHICO13]

Originally posted by Lucid


The rivalry I voted for was Cowboys/Redskins, based solely off of tradition, but it's a matchup that puts me to sleep right now. Growing up a Skins fan I can remember some incredible victories and some bitter defeats. It's always the game you circle on your calender. But you're right, lately it's been pretty lopsided on the Cowboys side. Maybe now that Joe Gibbs is back in town it'll heat back up. Parcells and Gibbs had some classic battles back in the day.

[ProfZodiac]

Pats-Jets.

[Pack87Man]

Packers-Bears is probably bigger than Packers-Vikings, but it's close. The former just has more history, although lately the latter has been much closer, including this year. Heck, the whole NFC North is one big rivalry.

[Chizzy]

Chiefs-Raiders

[Ludahai]

Pats-Dolphins

[minorthreat]

The last Bears-Packers game in the old Soldier Field was the most intense NFL game I've ever been to.

[DoctorJones24]

I was a Cowboy fan (cured, btw) living in DC as a kid when the Redskins were beating up on my Danny White led boys. But the games were always great, and the rivalry was intense. Our middle school would have Cowboy/Redskin day whenever they played, and everyone would show up dressed in either team colors.

[Auriaprottu]

[Rip Van Winkle] Steelers-Cowboys![/Rip Van Winkle]

My memories of this rivalry are about the same as DoctorJones24's of Dallas-Washington. When I was in elementary school in Maryland, I was the only Steeler fan among dozens of Redskins and Colts fans (and one poor sap who loved the Vikings, bless his heart). The Skins had just beaten Dallas in the NFC title game, and their fans were full of themselves. Well, as we alll know, they lost to the undefeated Dolphins, and the Steelers' dynasty began two years later. Then we moved back to Alabama and I began to encounter Cowboy fans. (no, not Falcons, Dolphins or Saints fans). Those few folks who weren't obsessed with Alabama or Auburn were all about the Cowboys. "America's Team"... Bullsh!t... a bunch of preening, white-jerseys-at-home-wearing cameraseekers, that's what they were.* Bradshaw spelled "C-A-T" better than Hollywood Henderson spells "N-A-S-A-L S-P-R-A-Y", and Super Bowl XIII and XIV made things right in America until the evil Niners came along. Then Neil O'Donnell gave the Cowboys their fifth title, putting them ahead of mighty Pittsburgh and leaving a stain on NFL history that will never be erased.





*Actually, the 70s Cowboys were as good a team as any other on the given day. I just never got used to their holier-than-thou fans. Give me Raider fans any day- at least they acknowledge that their boys ain't saints.

[CrewToon]

You forgot the oldest rivalry in the NFL: Bears-Packers.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Ludahai
Pats-Dolphins

#1 for the Pats, no matter what most of the 90s fans tell you. Jonathan Kraft even went on the radio during a pregame and said they always felt Miami was rival number one, and this is when Parcells was still with the Jets. Miami's always been the big rival, at least for me. We see them as having the holier than thou attitude from the 70s and 80s, being a bunch of South Florida softies, not to mention a bunch of crybabies. They see us as a bunch of northeastern scrappy thugs with know it all fans. And Don Shula still won't talk about the snowplow game. :D

[Fah Que]

Originally posted by CrewToon
You forgot the oldest rivalry in the NFL: Bears-Packers.

Dude, I lived in Wisconsin I have to disagree with you. Bears packers rivalry only exists only paper these days, that's mostly because the bears have sucked for too long. Green Bay fans hate the vikings 100 times more than the bears. You have no idea how obssessive Green Bay fans are in this rivalry. Every week if the vikings is on TV, they would definitely watch and cheer for the other team.

Alex's right not to include GB-Chi rivalry. It's outdated.

[JayJay]

Originally posted by Fah Que
Dude, I lived in Wisconsin I have to disagree with you. Bears packers rivalry only exists only paper these days, that's mostly because the bears have sucked for too long. Green Bay fans hate the vikings 100 times more than the bears. You have no idea how obssessive Green Bay fans are in this rivalry. Every week if the vikings is on TV, they would definitely watch and cheer for the other team.

Alex's right not to include GB-Chi rivalry. It's outdated.

I agree. With the Packers and Bears, its rare that both teams are good at the same time, making the games unintresting. The Packer Viking rivalry is much worse. Making even more heated is the way, the states in general just don't like each other. People from Wisconsin hate the people from Minnesota and people from Minnesota hate people from Wisconsin.

[Ludahai]

Originally posted by Jeff
#1 for the Pats, no matter what most of the 90s fans tell you. Jonathan Kraft even went on the radio during a pregame and said they always felt Miami was rival number one, and this is when Parcells was still with the Jets. Miami's always been the big rival, at least for me. We see them as having the holier than thou attitude from the 70s and 80s, being a bunch of South Florida softies, not to mention a bunch of crybabies. They see us as a bunch of northeastern scrappy thugs with know it all fans. And Don Shula still won't talk about the snowplow game. :D

It is too bad the younger fans don't know the intensity of the Pats-Dolphins rivalry of years past. I was at the snowplow game, and I still talk about it with I get together with my uncle. There was always a special feeling when the Pats played the Phins. Can never forget "Squish the Fish" during the first Super Bowl run. Just a great rivalry.

The Pats-Raiders rivalry in the 70s and 80s was also pretty intense. I will never forgive the mistake the refs made in 1976!

[Malaga CF fan]

Broncos-Raiders got left off there. Definitely a huge rivalry and teams that have never liked each other, not to mention the animosity that exists between Al Davis and Mike Shanahan (who argues that Davis still owes him wages after he was fired from the Raiders job in the early 90's).

Pretty much started in the early 70's and truly became a rivalry when Denver beat Oakland in the 1977 playoffs and Tom Jackson was heard running by the Raiders bench yelling "It's all over fat man!!!" to John Madden.

Chiefs is a close second for the Broncos. This rivalry is definitely more intense than Rams-49ers or Bills-Dolphins, but I don't think the east coast sees the Raiders-Broncos games as much (although MNF has been pretty consistent in showing those games the past couple of years) and so other teams tend to seem like bigger rivals.

[SABuffalo786]

Bills-Dolphins may have tapered off in recent years, but nothing compares to the classic Kelly-Marino duels of the early 90's.

[Ghost]

As a Cowboy fan, the Redskins is the big rivalry in terms of tradition. However, being a young, young Cowboys fan in the late 70s when the Redskins were nothing special, I still remember the intense rivalry with the Steelers. Over Christmas, I saw the NFL Films extended documentary on SB XIII, and you get the feeling from the interviews that the players would still show up tomorrow on a vacant lot in Waco to replay that game. Roger Staubach on a controversial pass interference call in that game: "Was that not the worst call in the history of the game of football? Rumor has it that (official) Fred Sweringen was a communist agent sent to destroy America's Team." He said he was kidding.

Likewise, another forgotten rivalry is Cowboys-49ers. While they had played pereviously in playoffs, and I believe in conference championships games, the rivalry starts with The Catch and extends into their three NFC Championship matchups in the 90s, in which the Cowboys outplayed them in 11 of 12 quarters, thank you. There's just something about their wine-sippin' fans that drives me nuts.

[SABuffalo786]

Originally posted by Ghost

Likewise, another forgotten rivalry is Cowboys-49ers. While they had played pereviously in playoffs, and I believe in conference championships games, the rivalry starts with The Catch and extends into their three NFC Championship matchups in the 90s, in which the Cowboys outplayed them in 11 of 12 quarters, thank you. There's just something about their wine-sippin' fans that drives me nuts.



TO stomping on the star? That was sweet when Emmit leveled him.