Rival v Rival: The Football Story

Hannah Bonner, staff writer

“When your rival is at the door, who will you become? This is NFL Nike Rivalries. Show them who you are…”  

Everyone’s seen this commercial, heard the iconic line said in between plays while an intense video showcasing Nike’s Rivalries jerseys fills the 30 second advertisement slot. National Football League (NFL) fans count down the days until rivalry games can be watched on the living room T.V., with the whole family decked out in team memorabilia, the experience complete with yelling, cheering, crying. Intense, longstanding feuds like the Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears, battles for dominance between the Pittsburg Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, each team going head-to-head to prove they’re the best, demonstrate their superiority, these rivalries make or break the NFL. Or, at least, they make or break its checkbook. 

In reality, fans only buy Rivalries jerseys because they look cool, not out of loyalty to their team in the midst of a heated feud. The NFL hypes up these ‘rivalries’ and rivalry games so much, trying to stir up the fans and garner interest when there isn’t really any tension between rivalling teams at all. The NFL and players are a company and its employees, with players fully aware of the fact that ‘team loyalty’ doesn’t mean a thing in the league. Players get drafted, traded, they switch teams; the same goes for coaches. Employees get fired and their salaries are threatened if they mess up. While NFL football is entertaining to watch and the games are fun to go to, the real point of the league is to make money as a company, and these ‘rivalries’ are one way for the NFL to do that, nothing more. They can generate some cash flow from selling overpriced jerseys under the guise of showing team loyalty, the league can hope to sell out of tickets for ‘rivalry games,’ but they can’t force fans or players to feel the rivalry, feel the tension the way they do with college football. 

A student, wishing to remain anonymous, says that college football teams and fans “hate each other. These schools are their rivals, there are brawls on the fields.” 

Another student agrees, because “when you’re in high school, you pick where you go to college and you develop a love for a certain school. You’re gonna go and give everything out on the field for that school, compared to when you go to a league. Players don’t get to choose where they play, they’ll get drafted somewhere, they get traded and moved around. That doesn’t happen in college. There’s more of a bond, a sense of loyalty, that develops between a student and the school or team that they pick and live with in their college lives versus teams that treat players like property.”  

College football rivalries are rooted in opposition between schools. Not only do fans and players hate fans and players from the other team, but students from one school hate the very idea of the other school. Whether this hatred stems from the football rivalries or the other way around is a case by case basis. Clemson University was founded in 1889 after state politicians, particularly Benjamin Tillman, felt the University of South Carolina (then South Carolina College) was too elitist and didn't offer a strong enough agricultural program. This led to USC being temporarily demoted, inflaming tensions between the two state-supported institutions. Because of this deeply rooted dislike between the two schools, a fierce feud erupted on the football field, leading to what we know today as the Palmetto Bowl. Miami vs. Florida State, on the other hand, is a college ball rivalry between two elite teams dating back to 1951, a feud based on one team ruining the other’s chance at the championship, intensified by proximity and competition for recruits. That annual feud on the field created animosity between the two schools, most likely because Miami has played Florida State more times than they’ve played any other opponent. Game Day traditions rile up students against the opposing school, feeding the fire.  

Everything about college football fuels the hate, animosity, and intensity of their rivalries, but the NFL lacks the stakes needed for fans and players to commit to its ‘rivalries’ the same way.