What Is A Rivalry?

  What is a rivalry? The Oxford Dictionary says that it is…”competition for the same objective or superiority in the same field.”

In the college sports arena, we just finished Rivalry Week in football. Schools pitted against one and another and even families are on opposite sides. 

This different level of competition is not limited to the collegiate ranks. Pro football has its own rivalries, created over time with rival teams in the same division or conference. 

The NBA has them, too. Ditto with the NHL. Teams squaring off against each other for something more than just pride. 

This isn’t confined to North America. Look at soccer, or as the rest of the world calls it, football. Whether it is clubs or countries, the matches can be bitter on the field, and off the pitch. 

Nor is the passion to win any less outside of sports. Whether it be the cola wars, fast food, news organizations and so many more entities—they don’t necessarily play nice or within the rules all the time. And I won’t even get into politics, where the rivalries between the parties and their candidates has hit an all new high (or low, depending on your viewpoint).

So what drove me to make rivalries my topic du jour? Well, the whole Thanksgiving weekend of sports, for starters. 

It began with the Detroit Lions hosting the Chicago Bears in the first of the two traditional Thanksgiving games. These are two of the oldest franchises in the National Football League. Along with Green Bay, the trio forms a triumvirate of power and respect for their histories. 

And it is no small coincidence that the Lions have hosted the Packers and Bears the most on the last Thursday in November. Nor that the people in Green Bay came out later in the night to support their team in a very rare home game on Thanksgiving; after all, they were used to seeing the Pack play on that day. 

The newer of the two long-standing Thanksgiving Day games is hosted by the Dallas Cowboys. When the team was a fledgling NFL franchise in the early 1960’s, in order to boost lagging attendance, the NFL permitted them to host a Turkey Day game. 

Which led to 70,000 showing up in the Cotton Bowl and a ratings bonanza for CBS. So they heartily approved of two games for what has now been about 60 years. 

A little lustre was lost when the two networks agreed to alternate airing the Lions and  the Cowboys every two seasons. But there was significantly more intensity when division teams like Washington, New York or Philadephia would come to Texas. 

When I watched the now Las Vegas Raiders visit the Kansas City Chiefs for the second Black Friday game on Amazon, I immediately recognized the fervor of the players playing a hated division foe. These two franchises go back to the roots of the American Football League and continue to battle hard against each other—even if the Raiders have finally settled in Sin City after twice landing in Oakland, with a pit stop in Los Angeles. 

There were some traditional college matchups on Friday. Minnesota met Wisconsin. Nebraska and Iowa squared off. The Egg Bowl saw Ole Miss down Mississippi State. 

But none of them could equal the in-state battle between Georgia and Georgia Tech. This was a hot-blooded Southern brawl, going back over 100 years. The schools don’t particularly like each other. Nor do the fans. At the outset, the schools shared a stadium in Atlanta, even though UGA was located in Athens, a far ways away back in the day. 

The name given to this football rivalry is “Clean, Old Fashioned Hate.” As much as oldies like Harvard and Yale dislike each other, a nickname such as “The Game” just doesn’t measure up to the discord between the schools and their fans. 

UGA is a liberal arts research university located in a college town. GT is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics school, located in the biggest city in the South. They compete for funding, students and academic rankings. 

Both meet in other sports, but football has been at the heart of differences between the two campuses. They were in the Southeastern Conference together until 1964 when Tech couldn’t stand competing directly with Georgia. Each has won four national Championships; UGA has been in the national title discussion in the last three years, while Tech hasn’t had a title since 1990.

The amount of vitriol between the supporters is incredible. It would take more space than I allotted to this topic to explain the shenanigans and mocking which goes on at this time of year. Just know that Yellow Jacket fans like to say “To Hell With Georgia”, calling them rednecks and other unpleasant names, while the Bulldog Nation refers to GT as the “Trade School” or call GT’s Grant Field as “The Joke by Coke”, referencing the headquarters of Coca-Coal in downtown Atlanta. 

If that wasn’t enough, UGA fans won’t eat yellow mustard because of GT’s colors, and Tech students won’t use red condiments, the predominant color of Georgia. Such its the nature of the rivalry.

On the field, the teams played a doozy of a game. Tech roared out to a sizable lead, and the Bulldogs had to claw their way back into the contest, trying the score late. 

Which set up the most memorable drama in overtime. It took eight OT periods on a crisp night in Athens to decide the winner—the home team won. In the second longest overtime game in manor college football history. 

Some people felt sad for the Tech team which played out its heart. In the eyes of the loyalists, they both won. Even if Georgia forever will rightfully claim victory. 

Michigan and Ohio State hate each other, too. Ohioans refer to UM as “That School Top North.” 

The two met this season in Columbus. Michigan won the National title last season but wan’t going to compete for it this year. Ohio State had a loss by a point to #1 Oregon in Eugene as the only blemish on their record. 

OSU was a large favorite to win and be in contention for the Big Ten title in a rematch with the Ducks. Michigan would go home to sulk after another defeat. 

Except that nobody told the Wolverines players. They took it to the Buckeyes, kicking a field goal to post a huge upset win and keep OSU from that rematch with Oregon. 

UM fans have been giddy since then. I saw plenty of people in New Jersey proudly wearing maize and blue. On the other hand, OSU faithful want Coach Ryan Day fired because he can’t seem to defeat Michigan. Even if his record is an outstanding 66-10, because he is 2-4 in bowl games and 1-3 in the College Football Playoffs. For 1-3 versus your most hated rival isn’t close to good enough. 

What set this game and a few others apart were the attempts by winning visiting team players to plant the team flag on the home team’s logo at midfield. A brawl broke out leading to pepper spraying Michigan players and fines of $100,000 for each school. 

Similar nonsense happened in Tallahassee when Florida defeated Florida State. At least Texas coach Steve Sarkasian stopped his team at Texas A&M from doing such stupidity, lest his players get hurt in the surefire melee which would have ensued in this bitter rivalry. 

I have a simple solution for this. Fine each school $1 million and make the winner forfeit the game. That would end this macho nonsense. It might even stop the extracurriculars which go on before and after the game itself. 

Until then, I hope that the feelings of dislike schools and fans have for the other team and their fans can be controlled. Not an easy task, I am afraid, given the longevity of these hatreds. Which are far from limited to the examples I have noted. 

What exactly is a rivalry? Nowhere is it inferred that inane actions are included.